Universität zu Köln

Mayer, Jennifer and Mussweiler, Thomas (2011). Suspicious Spirits, Flexible Minds: When Distrust Enhances Creativity. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol., 101 (6). S. 1262 - 1278. WASHINGTON: AMER PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOC. ISSN 1939-1315

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Abstract

Intuitively, as well as in light of prior research, distrust and creativity appear incompatible. The social consequences of distrust include reluctance to share information, a quality detrimental to creativity in social settings. At the same time, the cognitive concomitants of distrust bear resemblance to creative cognition: Distrust seems to foster thinking about nonobvious alternatives to potentially deceptive appearances. These cognitive underpinnings of distrust hold the provocative implication that distrust may foster creativity. Mirroring these contradictory findings, we suggest that the social versus cognitive consequences of distrust have diverging implications for creativity. We address this question in Study 1 by introducing private/public as a moderating variable for effects of distrust on creativity. Consistent with distrust's social consequences, subliminal distrust (vs. trust) priming had detrimental effects on creative generation presumed to be public. Consistent with distrust's cognitive consequences, though, an opposite tendency emerged in private. Study 2 confirmed a beneficial effect of distrust on private creative generation with a different priming method and pointed to cognitive flexibility as the mediating process. Studies 3 and 4 showed increased category inclusiveness versus increased remote semantic spread after distrust priming, consistent with enhanced cognitive flexibility as a consequence of distrust. Taken together, these results provide evidence for the creativity-enhancing potential of distrust and suggest cognitive flexibility as its underlying mechanism.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Mayer, Jennifer UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Mussweiler, Thomas UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-484539
DOI:	10.1037/a0024407
Journal or Publication Title:	J. Pers. Soc. Psychol.
Volume:	101
Number:	6
Page Range:	S. 1262 - 1278
Date:	2011
Publisher:	AMER PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOC
Place of Publication:	WASHINGTON
ISSN:	1939-1315
Language:	English
Faculty:	Unspecified
Divisions:	Unspecified
Subjects:	no entry
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language DIVERGENT THINKING; INTEGRATIVE MODEL; IDEA GENERATION; SOCIAL-CONFLICT; HEDONIC TONE; TRUST; ACTIVATION; MOOD; DETERMINANTS; INFORMATION Multiple languages Psychology, Social Multiple languages
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/48453