The Dark Side of Creativity: Original Thinkers Can be More Dishonest

Francesca Gino (fgino@hbs.edu) and Dan Ariely (dandan@duke.edu)
Additional contact information
Francesca Gino: Harvard Business School, Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit
Dan Ariely: Fuqua School of Business, Duke University

No 11-064, Harvard Business School Working Papers from Harvard Business School

Abstract: Creativity is a common aspiration for individuals, organizations, and societies. Here, however, we test whether creativity increases dishonesty. We propose that a creative personality and creativity primes promote individuals' motivation to think outside the box and that this increased motivation leads to unethical behavior. In four studies, we show that participants with creative personalities who scored high on a test measuring divergent thinking tended to cheat more (Study 1); that dispositional creativity is a better predictor of unethical behavior than intelligence (Study 2); and that participants who were primed to think creatively were more likely to behave dishonestly because of their creativity motivation (Study 3) and greater ability to justify their dishonest behavior (Study 4). Finally, a field study constructively replicates these effects and demonstrates that individuals who work in more creative positions are also more morally flexible (Study 5). The results provide evidence for an association between creativity and dishonesty, thus highlighting a dark side of creativity.

Keywords: creativity; creative thinking; dishonesty; intelligence; unethical behavior (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 47 pages
Date: 2011-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-cul, nep-exp and nep-soc
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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