Evil Genius? How Dishonesty Can Lead to Greater Creativity 1. úkol Abstract We propose that dishonest and creative behavior have something in common: They both involve breaking rules. Because of this shared feature, creativity may lead to dishonesty (as shown in prior work), and dishonesty may lead to creativity (the hypothesis we tested in this research). In five experiments, participants had the opportunity to behave dishonestly by overreporting their performance on various tasks. They then completed one or more tasks designed to measure creativity. Those who cheated were subsequently more creative than noncheaters, even when we accounted for individual differences in their creative ability (Experiment 1). Using random assignment, we confirmed that acting dishonestly leads to greater creativity in subsequent tasks (Experiments 2 and 3). The link between dishonesty and creativity is explained by a heightened feeling of being unconstrained by rules, as indicated by both mediation (Experiment 4) and moderation (Experiment 5). Researchers across disciplines have become increasingly interested in understanding why even people who care about morality predictably cross ethical boundaries. This heightened interest in unethical behavior, defined as acts that violate widely held moral rules or norms of appropriate conduct (Treviño, Weaver, & Reynolds, 2006), is easily understood. Unethical behavior creates trillions of dollars in financial losses every year and is becoming increasingly commonplace (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2011). One form of unethical behavior, dishonesty, seems especially pervasive (Bazerman & Gino, 2012). Like other forms of unethical behavior, dishonesty involves breaking a rule—the social principle that people should tell the truth. Much of the scholarly attention devoted to understanding why individuals behave unethically has therefore focused on the factors that lead people to break rules. Although rule breaking carries a negative connotation in the domain of ethics, it carries a positive connotation in another well-researched domain: creativity. To be creative, it is often said, one must “think outside the box” and use divergent thinking (Guilford, 1967; Runco, 2010; Simonton, 1999). Divergent thinking requires that people break some (but not all) rules within a domain to construct associations between previously unassociated cognitive elements (Bailin, 1987; Guilford, 1950). The resulting unusual mental associations serve as the basis for novel ideas (Langley & Jones, 1988; Sternberg, 1988). The creative process therefore involves rule breaking, as one must break rules to take advantage of existing opportunities or to create new ones (Brenkert, 2009). Thus, scholars have asserted that organizations may foster creativity by hiring people slow to learn the organizational code (Sutton, 2001, 2002) and by encouraging people to break from accepted practices (Winslow & Solomon, 1993) or to break rules (Baucus, Norton, Baucus, & Human, 2008; Kelley & Littman, 2001). Given that both dishonesty and creativity involve rule breaking, the individuals most likely to behave dishonestly and the individuals most likely to be creative may be one and the same. Indeed, highly creative people are more likely than less creative people to bend rules or break laws (Cropley, Kaufman, & Cropley, 2003; Sternberg & Lubart, 1995; Sulloway, 1996). Popular tales are replete with images of “evil geniuses,” such as Rotwang in Metropolis and “Lex” Luthor in Superman, who are both creative and nefarious in their attempts to ruin humanity. Similarly, news articles have applied the “evil genius” moniker to Bernard Madoff, who made $20 billion disappear using a creative Ponzi scheme. The causal relationship between creativity and unethical behavior may take two possible forms: The creative process may trigger dishonesty; alternatively, acting unethically may enhance creativity. Research has demonstrated that enhancing the motivation to think outside the box can drive people toward more dishonest decisions (Beaussart, Andrews, & Kaufman, 2013; Gino & Ariely, 2012). But could acting dishonestly enhance creativity in subsequent tasks? In five experiments, we obtained the first empirical evidence that behaving dishonestly can spur creativity and examined the psychological mechanism explaining this link. We suggest that after behaving dishonestly, people feel less constrained by rules, and are thus more likely to act creatively by constructing associations between previously unassociated cognitive elements. General Discussion There is little doubt that dishonesty creates costs for society. It is less clear whether it produces any positive consequences. This research identified one such positive consequence, demonstrating that people may become more creative after behaving dishonestly because acting dishonestly leaves them feeling less constrained by rules. By identifying potential consequences of acting dishonestly, these findings complement existing research on behavioral ethics and moral psychology, which has focused primarily on identifying the antecedents to unethical behavior (Bazerman & Gino, 2012). These findings also advance understanding of creative behavior by showing that feeling unconstrained by rules enhances creative sparks. More speculatively, our research raises the possibility that one of the reasons why dishonesty is so widespread in today’s society is that by acting dishonestly, people become more creative, which allows them to come up with more creative justifications for their immoral behavior and therefore makes them more likely to behave dishonestly (Gino & Ariely, 2012), which may make them more creative, and so on. In sum, this research shows that the sentiment expressed in the common saying “rules are meant to be broken” is at the root of both creative performance and dishonest behavior. It also provides new evidence that dishonesty may therefore lead people to become more creative in their subsequent endeavors. Legenda: PRIMÁRNÍ INFORMACE SEKUNDÁRNÍ INFORMACE TERCIÁLNÍ INFORMACE 2. + 3. úkol 1.) Divergent thinking requires that people break some (but not all) rules within a domain to construct associations between previously unassociated cognitive elements (Bailin, 1987) Creative thinking, on the other hand, is precisely the type of thinking which can transcend frameworks . It is inventive, imaginative, and involves the generation of new ideas . Because it involves breaking out of old frameworks, creative thinking is thought to exhibit characteristics which are precisely the opposite of critical thinking . It is essentially generative, spontaneous, and non-evaluative. It involves divergent thinking, rulebreaking, the suspension of judgment, and leaps of imagination. Second, the idea that creative thinking is essentially rule-breaking can also be questioned. It is frequently the case that innovation requires the breaking of a rule or rules of the framework in question, but it is generally only very few rules that are broken. The majority remain intact, rules which give coherence to the activity as essentially rule-breaking largely ignores the background of rules and rule-governed activity against which any creation occurs and the continuity between an innovation and that which precedes it. Původní informace je pochopitelně obsáhlejší a rozvinutější, nicméně sekundární informaci považuju za poměrně vystihující. Z původní informace lze ale vyčíst, že porušování pravidel není pro kreativitu až takovým způsobem zásadní. 2.) Research has demonstrated that enhancing the motivation to think outside the box can drive people toward more dishonest decisions (Beaussart, Andrews, & Kaufman, 2013) Students were first given the creativity test and then the self-reported integrity scale followed by the demographic questionnaire. To check observable integrity, we gave the students an objective behavioral integrity test (OBIT). When they were finished with the other measures, they were shown a “Thank You” page that gave them two choices; they could click on a button to “return to survey” or they could click on a button to “receive extra credit”. When the mouse hovered over either button a fake error message popped up and told the students that a mistake had occurred and they had not finished taking the survey. They were then instructed to click on the “return to survey” button and complete all the measures. When the student closed the error message they were returned to the previous screen giving them the two choices of either returning to the survey or receiving their extra credit. If the student clicked on the option to return to the survey they were given a measure on religion that was not intended for analysis and then taken to the page to receive their extra credit. If they clicked on the extra credit button they were taken directly to the page to receive their extra credit. This study indicates that people who “fail” an objective test of behavioral integrity (regardless of their self-perceived honesty) are more creative. Studenti nejprve absolvovali test kreativity RAT a poté jim byl administrován dotazník, který byl součástí testu behaviorální integrity, kde mohli podvádět. Ve výsledcích se ukázalo, že lidé, kteří podváděli v testu behaviorální integrity, jsou kreativnější. V původním zdroji je trochu jinak prezentována kauzalita a celá sekundární informace tak vyznívá trochu zkresleně. 3.) Indeed, highly creative people are more likely than less creative people to bend rules or break laws (Cropley, Kaufman, & Cropley, 2003) One area where malevolent creativity might be expected to occur is crime. Possible links between creativity and crime can be looked at in at least three ways. Criminality may sometimes be a kind of accidental by-product of creativity: Because creativity requires deviating from the conventional, there is a permanent tension between being creative and producing products that go too far, sometimes to the point of breaking the law (whether or not other societies or later generations would approve of the law in question). V článku se spojuje kreativita se zločinem a terorismem, což už je extrémní verze zde zmíněného neetického chování a podává vyhrocenější pohled na situaci, než bych pochopila z této citace. 4. úkol Výzkum Evil Genius? How Dishonesty Can Lead to Greater Creativity se zabýval souvislostí mezi kreativitou a nečestným chováním. Autoři článku Francesca Gino a Scott S. Wiltermuth nám ve svém výzkumu předkládají názor, že nepoctivost a kreativita mají společný základ, a to porušování pravidel. Formulovali tedy hypotézu, že nepoctivost může vést k vyšší kreativitě. Tuto hypotézu potom testovali ve svém výzkumu. V rámci výzkumu proběhlo celkem 5 experimentů. V prvním experimentu se zjišťovalo, zda jsou lidé, kteří se zachovají nečestně, kreativnější než ti, kteří se tak nezachovali. Zatím co v prvním experimentu se lidé k podvodu rozhodli sami, v druhém experimentu byla použita manipulace. Tímto způsobem byl uměle vytvořen prostor pro podvádění. Třetí experiment zjišťoval, zda porušení pravidla s etickým dopadem způsobuje větší kreativitu než porušení pravidla bez etického dopadu, neboť první uvedené představuje silnější odklonění od pravidel. Čtvrtý experiment zkoumal, do jaké míry pocit nesvázanosti pravidly ovlivňuje míru podvádění a tedy i kreativity. Pátý experiment potom rozšiřuje čtvrtý v tom ohledu, že bylo řízeno, která skupina má možnost podvádět a která nikoliv. Všech pět experimentů bylo více či méně založeno na podobných úkolech. V prvé řadě byl účastníkům administrován úkol, při kterém měli možnost podvádět. Většinou šlo o výkonové úlohy (matematické úlohy, přesmyčky) nebo o úlohy založené na náhodě (hod mincí nebo kostkou). Za dobrý výkon byli navíc většinou finančně ohodnoceni. Po takovémto úkolu následoval úkol měřící míru kreativity (Duncker Candle Problem, Remote Association Task/RAT, atd.). Ve všech pěti experimentech se potvrdila hypotéza, že podvádění zvyšuje míru kreativity u následujícího úkolu. Dá se tedy říci, že pokud vždy dodržujeme pravidla, můžeme získat pocit, že vše je dáno a nemůže být ani jinak. Pokud ale pravidlo porušíme, vystoupíme tak ze zajetých kolejí a uvědomíme si, že věci mohou být i jinak. To v nás odstartuje schopnost myslet více nekonvenčně a tím pádem být i více kreativní . Zdroj: Gino, F., & Wiltermuth, S. S. (2014). Evil Genius? How Dishonesty Can Lead to Greater Creativity. Psychological Science (Sage Publications Inc.), 25(4), 973-981.