Is there a hidden bias against creativity?
November 18, 2011 in Psychology & Psychiatry
CEOs, teachers, and leaders claim they want creative ideas to solve problems. But creative ideas are rejected all the time. A new study, which will be published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that people have a hidden bias against creativity. We claim to like creativity, but when were feeling uncertain and anxiousjust the way you might feel when youre trying to come up with a creative solution to a problemwe cannot recognize the creative ideas we so desire.
Generally, people think creativity is good. Before starting this study, the researchers checked that with a group of college students. Overwhelmingly, the data showed that students had positive implicit and explicit associations with creativity, says Jennifer Mueller of the University of Pennsylvania. She carried out the new study with Shimul Melwani of the University of Pennsylvania and Jack A. Goncalo of Cornell University.
But in experiments, peoples perceptions changed. In one experiment, the researchers made some people think about uncertaintyby telling them they might get some extra money after the study based on a random lottery. Other participants went into the study without that priming. They were all given a test that shows how they group concepts together. The people who had been made to think about uncertainty were more likely to subconsciously associate words like creative, inventive, and original with bad concepts like hell, rotten, and poison. In the other condition people associated creativity words with things like rainbow, cake, and sunshine.
If I ask you right now to estimate whether or not you can generate a creative idea to solve a problem, youre not going to know, Mueller says. That feeling of uncertainty might be the root of the problem. When youre trying to come up with a creative solution to a problem, you worry that you cant come up with a good idea, that what you do come up with might not be practical, or that your idea might make you look stupid. It feels so bad sometimes trying to be creative in a social context, Mueller says.
This uncertainty may make leaders reject creative ideas. But sometimes we need creative ideas. If youre a company that makes radios and suddenly nobodys buying them anymore, you dont have a choice, Mueller saysyou have to come up with something new. Her research suggests that rather than focusing on the process of coming up with ideas, companies may need to pay more attention to what makes them reject creative ideas.
Provided by
Association for Psychological Science
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Nov 18, 2011
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Nov 18, 2011
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More often than not, it's not even hidden. Especially in large, established, conservative organizations.
Nov 18, 2011
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Nov 18, 2011
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http://en.wikiped...f_Dunces
Jonathan Swift: "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."
Adalbert Chamisso: "Pythagoras made one sacrifice to the Gods who sent him this enlightenment; one hundred oxen, slaughtered and burned, professed his gratitude. The oxen, since that day when they scented that a new truth divulged itself, roared inhumanely."
Nov 18, 2011
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People don't just not like creativity, they fear and hate it. I learned this long ago and use it to sperate people worth talking to from others among other things.
Nov 18, 2011
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The best way to help people to think creatively is to help them find ways to reduce anxieties and stress. Offer them support in addressing problems with a creative method. Do not oneself fall into the habit of letting stress make you no longer appreciative of creativity.
Nov 18, 2011
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Nov 19, 2011
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Another problem with creative ideas is that they need to be explained well. Usually the creator is very familiar with his idea, but his listeners are much less so. The presentation "pitch" often needs to provide some background information, yet be brief enough that you don't exceed management's attention span.
Naysayers can be the biggest problem. Often the sales pitch has to spend more effort explaining away problems with a creative idea than extolling the benefits.
Nov 19, 2011
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drJLD, thinking creatively comes from confindence in your ability to handle things and change. Sadly most people fear both because they don't like themselves. This leads to thier inability to think clearly or creatively.
Next your point that one can't be creative because of automatic thinking is not true at least for me as I have in around .3/sec, see something, created a plan for action and started acting on it proves one can be creative without conciencely thinking and automatic thinking wasn't a problem.
Actions saving a seaplane from crashing into a dock and various other emergencies.
About the only way to change those to think creatively is change their whole way of thinking, making themselves respect themselves by doing, learning. This takes many yrs if they missed it when they were young. In my work I've found only 20-30 can change.
Nov 19, 2011
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Dec 08, 2011
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For example a comment at http://www.physor...ark.html
"Scientists have adopted the corporate concept of what it means to be a "professional", but professionals are not creative."
Jan 08, 2012
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With respect to the "experiment", was it a negative attitude toward creativity, in an atmosphere of "uncertainty", that caused the students to be "more likely" to associate it with negative concepts, or were they, perhaps, subconciously trying to guess how their answers might affect the result of the lottery at the end? And, face it, for college students, how lacking in uncertainty is the environment for the students not told about a lottery at the end? They still have tests, dates, money from home, any of a number of things to concern them! And how much "more likely"? Did they each have only one extra negative term associated with creativity, or ten?
And consider, negative attitudes toward creativity in solutions are being presented as being on the part of someone supposedly worried they won't be able to come up with one. But most negative reaction comes from onlookers not called on to provide their own.