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Depressed mood has attracted little attention in creativity research. By comparison, psychotherapeutic studies have repeatedly associated depressive symptomatology with increased revenge ideation. Combining creativity and retaliatory ideation, the present study examined whether self-reported subclinical depressive symptoms are linked to malevolent creativity -- creativity used for the purpose of damaging others -- in a psychometric test. In a sample of n = 259 participants, overall depressive symptoms were positively associated with malevolent creativity. Sensitivity analyses confirmed this link for motivational and interactional symptoms, but not cognitive symptoms of depression. As a gender-specific finding, malevolent creativity was positively linked to emotional symptoms of depression in women, but not men. Our findings hint at the possibility that mood impairments through depressive symptoms may facilitate malevolent creative ideation through increased impulsivity, reduced self-regulation, and protracted anger rumination. Following recommendations regarding more focused investigations into the vast research complex of psychopathology and creativity, this study emphasizes negative mood as a risk factor for the occurrence of harmful creative ideation, and thus, presents a novel perspective on the intricate link between internalizing and externalizing symptomatology.

This study investigates the link between the revised reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST) and individuals' capacity to spontaneously invent alternate appraisals for aversive events. Eighty-two women completed the Reappraisal Inventiveness Test for anger-eliciting situations, and quantity and quality of reappraisal ideas were correlated with BIS, BAS, and FFFS sensitivity (RST-Personality Questionnaire). Results revealed that high BIS and high FFFS reduced the total number of reappraisal ideas, indicating that combined heightened sensitivity of the two avoidance systems may deplete individuals' repertoire of potential reappraisals. RST effects on the quality of generated reappraisals were also found. High BIS and low BAS lowered individuals' propensity to produce positive re-interpretations, which are considered a more adaptive reappraisal tactic. High FFFS sensitivity was linked to a lower preference for problem-oriented reappraisals. This study underlines that certain interactions of motivational subsystems may be particularly detrimental for successful reappraisal of anger-eliciting events. Our findings reveal potential links between revised RST effects and adaptive emotion regulation., Author(s): Corinna M. Perchtold-Stefan [sup.1] , Andreas Fink [sup.1] , Jonathan F. Bauer [sup.1] , Christian Rominger [sup.1] , Ilona Papousek [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.5110.5, 0000000121539003, Department of Psychology, [...]

The personality trait of schizotypy has received considerable attention in creativity research; however, to date, literature has exclusively focused on its relationship with benevolent creative ideation. The present study investigated how different subdimensions of schizotypy were related to malevolent creativity, where original ideas are generated to harm others intentionally. N = 104 participants completed a novel performance test for malevolent creativity and reported the frequency of engaging in malevolent creativity in daily life. Schizotypy was assessed with a multidimensional inventory (sO-LIFE). The sO-LIFE subdimension of "Impulsive Non-conformity" positively correlated with individuals' performance on the malevolent creativity test as well as with their typical malevolent creativity behavior, confirming our expectations that individuals high in impulsive antisocial schizotypy demonstrate a greater capacity and willingness to use creativity toward malicious goals. Results also indicated a weak contribution of "Unusual Experiences" to malevolent creativity performance, yet correlations were only significant at the trend level. Unexpectedly, "Cognitive Disorganization" was positively correlated with malevolent creativity behavior in daily life. This pattern of relationships shows that individual differences in schizotypal personality traits are also related to darker sides of creativity, which may inform future investigations embedded into the rich framework linking creativity and psychopathology.

Research is currently witnessing more investigations into malevolent creativity--creativity that is used to intentionally harm others. Inspired by previous methods to measure malevolent creativity, in the present study, we introduce a real-world behavioral task designed to capture individuals' capacity for using creativity for the purpose of attaining malevolent goals in response to everyday, provocative situations. In a sample of 105 students, we found malevolent creativity positively correlated with fluency in conventional creative ideation, as well as with self-reported typical malevolent creativity behavior in daily life. Moreover, performance on the malevolent creativity task showed positive correlations with the maladaptive personality trait of antagonism (PID-5) as well as individuals' state anger at the beginning of the experiment. Further, our multiple regression analysis revealed that conventional creative ideation, antagonistic personality, and state anger all explained unique, non-overlapping variance in the capacity for implementing malevolent creativity. As a whole, these findings suggest that different cognitive and affective factors, along with specific personality traits may each contribute to the expression of malevolent creativity in distinct ways. Future investigations striving to further decode the destructive potential of individuals toward others may benefit from this validated behavioral measurement approach to malevolent creativity.

The experience of social exclusion has been shown to trigger aggressive, antisocial behavior. This outcome is particularly problematic if such retaliatory acts, in addition to being harmful, are also highly original and creative and difficult to anticipate and to defend against. For this reason, the present study investigated whether a laboratory social exclusion paradigm would increase malevolent creativity—creativity deliberately aimed at damaging others. In a sample of n = 81, male and female participants were either excluded or included by an alleged group of peers based on their personal preferences, and then generated as many original ideas as possible to take revenge on other wrongdoers (Malevolent Creativity Test, MCT). State affect was additionally assessed before and after exclusion or inclusion. Analyses revealed that social exclusion had significant effects on individuals' malevolent creativity performance, with the excluded group generating a greater number of vengeful ideas in the MCT that were also rated as more original. Greater harmfulness (malevolence) of revenge ideas was specifically observed for excluded women. While social exclusion was linked to increased anger and general negative affect, affect changes did not mediate exclusion effects on malevolent creativity. This hints at more complex mechanisms linking social exclusion and creative antisocial behavior other than immediate emotional responses. Altogether, our findings emphasize the role of situative factors for the emergence of malevolent creativity, suggesting that anybody may resort to highly malicious ideation under threatening circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Criminals allegedly use effective novelty to intentionally exploit and harm others (creative fraud, theft, and murder). However, empirical evidence that criminals possess higher malevolent creativity than individuals without criminal backgrounds is lacking. We compared a male sample of prisoners in a maximum‐security penitentiary (n = 140), police officers (n = 122), and the general population (n = 106) on three different aspects of malevolent creativity: self‐reported malevolent creativity behavior (MCBS), willingness to engage in malevolent creativity on a test (MCT), and malevolent creativity potential on that test (reduced n = 285). Group comparisons (ANOVAs) differed for different malevolent creativity aspects: Prisoners reported more malevolent creativity behavior in daily life (MCBS) than nonprisoners, which may reflect their alleged criminal personality or the effects of confinement on creative coping with threat. However, prisoners also performed worse than police officers in generating creative ideas for taking revenge on others (MCT). No differences in initial willingness to engage in malevolent creativity (MCT) emerged. This discrepancy of self‐report and ability is discussed from several angles, including suitability of the applied measures and heterogeneity of prison populations. This study constitutes the first empirical insights into the often hypothesized but rarely tested malevolent creativity expression in the criminal mind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The perception of meaningful patterns in random arrangements and unrelated events takes place in our everyday lives, coined apophenia, synchronicity, or the experience of meaningful coincidences. However, we do not know yet what predicts this phenomenon. To investigate this, we re-analyzed a combined data set of two daily diary studies with a total of N = 169 participants (mean age 29.95 years; 54 men). We investigated if positive or negative affect (PA, NA) predicts the number of meaningful coincidences on the following day (or vice versa). By means of a cross-lagged multilevel modelling approach (Bayesian estimation) we evaluated with which of two theoretical assumptions the data are more in line. First, if meaningful coincidences are facilitated by a broader and more flexible thinking style, PA should positively predict meaningful coincidences at the following day. However, if the experience of meaningful coincidences signifies a strategy to cope with negative feeling states, NA should predict the experience of meaningful coincidences during the following day. In favour of a more flexible thinking style, we found that PA predicted the number of perceived coincidences the following day. We did not find any effect for NA, and therefore, no evidence arguing for the coping mechanism hypothesis of meaningful coincidences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creative ideation constitutes an important human skill to develop innovative solutions in science and technology and to overcome daily challenges. Although creative ideation takes place in everyday life situations, the moment-to-moment dynamics of creative ideation performance has not been intensively investigated so far. Fortunately, well-developed methods exist to assess creative ideation performance in controlled settings that can be adopted for assessments in real-life contexts. In the present field-study, a novel Ambulatory Battery of Creativity (ABC) was applied to a sample of 77 participants for 5 days. Each day, participants had to complete 12 randomly presented items of two divergent thinking tasks—half in the verbal and half in the figural domain. Psychometric analyses indicated good between-person (≥.84) and within-person (≥.70) reliability. Furthermore, between-person and within-person validity evidence of the ABC was obtained. This study constitutes a first attempt to develop a reliable and valid ABC to measure both individual differences and moment-to-moment fluctuations of creative ideation performance in everyday life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research indicated an association of acute and chronic physical activity with creative ideation performance. However, no study to date applied ecologically valid ambulatory methods with the potential to generalize these positive relationships to everyday life contexts. This study assessed acute and chronic physical activity (i.e., number of steps assessed via acceleration sensors) as well as creative ideation performance (in the verbal and figural domain) with an ecological momentary assessment approach in a sample of 157 young adults. We found that both single bouts of walking and walking regularly were associated with more original verbal ideas. Positive affect did not mediate this association; however, for figural creativity, the indirect path of acute physical activity via acute positive affect was significant. Although the relationship between walking and creativity seems to be domain-specific, the study findings suggest that the positive effects of physical activity on creativity transfer to everyday life contexts. Public Significance Statement: Being physically active has become an important lifestyle factor associated with beneficial effects on mental and physical health. This study showed that both single bouts of walking and walking regularly are related to higher verbal creativity in everyday life contexts. This highlights the great potential of walking as health-promoting physical activity to enhance creative thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As people age, they tend to spend more time indoors, and the colours in their surroundings may significantly impact their mood and overall well-being. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence to provide informed guidance on colour choices, irrespective of age group. To work towards informed choices, we investigated whether the associations between colours and emotions observed in younger individuals also apply to older adults. We recruited 7393 participants, aged between 16 and 88 years and coming from 31 countries. Each participant associated 12 colour terms with 20 emotion concepts and rated the intensity of each associated emotion. Different age groups exhibited highly similar patterns of colour-emotion associations (average similarity coefficient of .97), with subtle yet meaningful age-related differences. Adolescents associated the greatest number but the least positively biased emotions with colours. Older participants associated a smaller number but more intense and more positive emotions with all colour terms, displaying a positivity effect. Age also predicted arousal and power biases, varying by colour. Findings suggest parallels in colour-emotion associations between younger and older adults, with subtle but significant age-related variations. Future studies should next assess whether colour-emotion associations reflect what people actually feel when exposed to colour., (© 2023 The British Psychological Society.)