Creative, Antagonistic, and Angry? Exploring the Roots of Malevolent Creativity with a Real-World Idea Generation Task

Different neural correlates of deception: Crafting high and low creative scams

Deception is a complex social behavior that manifests in various forms, including scams. To successfully deceive victims, liars have to continually devise novel scams. This ability to create novel scams represents one kind of malevolent creativity, referred to as lying. This study aimed to explore different neural substrates involved in the generation of high and low creative scams. A total of 40 participants were required to design several creative scams, and their cortical activity was recorded by functional near-infrared spectroscopy. The results revealed that the right frontopolar cortex (FPC) was significantly active in scam generation. This region associated with theory of mind may be a key region for creating novel and complex scams. Moreover, creativity-related regions were positively involved in creative scams, while morality-related areas showed negative involvement. This suggests that individuals might attempt to use malevolent creativity while simultaneously minimizing the influence of moral considerations. The right FPC exhibited increased coupling with the right precentral gyrus during the design of high-harmfulness scams, suggesting a diminished control over immoral thoughts in the generation of harmful scams. Additionally, the perception of the victim's emotions (related to right pre-motor cortex) might diminish the quality of highly original scams. Furthermore, an efficient and cohesive neural coupling state appears to be a key factor in generating high-creativity scams. These findings suggest that the right FPC was crucial in scam creation, highlighting a neural basis for balancing malevolent creativity against moral considerations in high-creativity deception.

How Multicultural Experiences Influence Malevolent Creativity

A wealth of studies have revealed that foreign experiences affect various cognitive abilities. One well-established finding is that living abroad can increase creative thinking skills. However, there has been little research on the dark side of creativity. Here, we hypothesized that exposure to foreign experiences can also foster malevolent creativity, which refers to the deliberate application of original ideas to turn a profit at someone else's expense. Consistent with our hypotheses, Studies 1 and 2 found that student participants with foreign experiences showed greater malevolent creativity than those without such experiences. Relying on non-student adults, Study 3 replicated the findings of Study 1 using a different behavioral outcome of malevolent creativity. Study 4 found that participants who had decided to move overseas but had not yet done so demonstrated reduced levels of malevolent creativity compared to participants who had lived abroad, which minimized the possibility of reverse causality. Study 5 utilized an experimental design methodology and provided causal evidence for the effect of foreign experiences on malevolent creativity. These findings contribute to understanding about the range of effects that foreign experiences can have on different types of creativity.

Similarities and Distinctions between Cortical Neural Substrates That Underlie Generation of Malevolent Creative Ideas

Creativity can be driven by negative intentions, and this is called malevolent creativity (MC). It is a type of creativity that serves antisocial purposes and deliberately leads to harmful or immoral results. A possible classification indicates that there are three kinds of MC in daily life: hurting people, lying, and playing tricks. This study aimed to explore similar and distinct neural substrates underlying these different kinds of MC idea generation. The participants were asked to perform different MC tasks, and their neural responses were recorded using a functional near-infrared spectroscopy device. The findings revealed that most regions within the prefrontal and temporal lobes [e.g., the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC), and right angular gyrus] were involved in the three MC tasks. However, the right frontopolar cortex (rFPC) was more activated and less coupled with the rDLPFC and right precuneus during the lying task than during the other tasks. Thus, rFPC may play an important role in constructing novel lies. In the lying task, individuals were more selfish and less compassionate. In the playing tricks and hurting people tasks, there was less neural coupling between the rDLPFC and the left inferior frontal gyrus/right inferior parietal lobule than that in the lying task. This may imply that selfish motivation is released when individuals try to ignore victims' distress or generate aggressive tricks in hurting people or playing tricks tasks. These findings indicate that the three kinds of MC idea generation involve common cortical regions related to creative idea generation and moral judgment, whereas differences in cortical responses exist because of their unique features.

Functional EEG Alpha Activation Patterns During Malevolent Creativity

On the dark side of creativity, creative ideation is intentionally used to damage others. This first EEG study on malevolent creativity investigated task-related power (TRP) changes in the alpha band while n = 89 participants (52 women, 37 men) generated original ideas for revenge in the psychometric Malevolent Creativity Test. TRP changes were assessed for different stages of the idea generation process and linked to performance indicators of malevolent creativity. This study revealed three crucial findings: 1) Malevolent creativity yielded topographically distinct alpha power increases similar to conventional creative ideation. 2) Time-related activity changes during malevolent creative ideation were reflected in early prefrontal and mid-stage temporal alpha power increases in individuals with higher malevolent creativity performance. This performance-related, time-sensitive pattern of TRP changes during malevolent creativity may reflect early conceptual expansion from prosocial to antisocial perspectives, and subsequent inhibition of dominant semantic associations in favor of novel revenge ideas. 3) The observed, right-lateralized alpha power increases over the entire ideation phase may denote an additional emotional load of creative ideation. Our study highlights the seminal role of EEG alpha oscillations as a biomarker for creativity, also when creative processes operate in a malevolent context.

Women and men have a similar potential for malevolent creativity - But their underlying brain mechanisms are different

Research interest in gender differences in aggression and creative ideation cumulates in the phenomenon of malevolent creativity. Taking another critical step in understanding malevolent creativity, we investigated gender differences in brain activation and functional coupling of cortical sites in the EEG alpha band while n = 88 women and men purposefully generated malevolent creative ideas for taking revenge on others. Results showed that malevolent creativity performance between the genders was similar; however, their underlying EEG patterns were markedly different. While women exhibited a steep decrease of task-related alpha power from frontal to left central-temporal, men's malevolent creative ideation was characterized by a more diffuse pattern of task-related alpha power changes, along with decreased frontal-central coupling. Per interpretation, women's malevolent creative thinking may more strongly rely on controlled semantic memory retrieval and novel re-combination of social/relationship information, while men may utilize more automatic motor-related imagery that may predominantly facilitate physical revenge ideation. Our findings add novel evidence to the idea that women and men engage different neurocognitive strategies to achieve similar creative performance and may help to further illuminate the darker side of creative ideation.

Decision-making approaches in the antagonistic digital communication of the online communities users

The information space is an effective hybrid warfare tool on the web. This study investigated the decision-making process in the antagonistic digital communication of internet services users. Implementation of the proposed methods in this study minimized the negative impact of the spread of destructive content and actions of unfair competitors in the ecosystem of social internet services. The innovativeness of the suggested methods is the ability to make real-time decisions in a situation of antagonistic behavior of online users. The authors presented a model to secure user data, contributing to sustainable communicative interaction for its managers and users. This article presented approaches to decision-making by online community administrators under conditions of antagonistic behavior of the online services, which ensures the increase of efficiency of online communication. Timely and effective decision-making eliminated the negative impact of conflicts between communities and the spread of threats to users' information security. The algorithm of decision-making by users of stable internet services is suggested. This article contains examples of using the examined Wald and Savage criteria for making optimal decisions, confirmed by many experiments. The developed methods are tested on the online community on the social network Facebook.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13278-022-01021-4.

The Effect of Infectious Disease Threat on Malevolent Creativity

The behavioral immune system (BIS), which evolved to protect humans from infectious disease threats, prompts people to be sensitive to disease-connoting cues. A common denominator of many disease-connoting cues is benign physical abnormalities, such as birthmarks and obesity. Previous studies found that among people whose BIS was activated (e.g., people who were exposed to situational disease prime or chronically concerned about disease threat), disease-connoting cues could make people feel threatened by infectious disease and induce their malevolence. Malevolence is a necessary feature of malevolent creativity (MC), which is defined as creativity that deliberately leads to harmful or immoral results. According to the motivated focus account of creativity, a threat could promote creativity when creativity is relevant to the threat. Thus, infectious disease threats might increase malevolent creativity. However, whether infectious disease threats could influence MC is unknown. Therefore, the current study aims to explore the effect of infectious disease threat on MC by two disease-connoting cues (birthmark, obesity). In Study 1 (n = 174), a 2 (threat prime: infectious disease, natural disaster) × 2 (disease-connoting cue: birthmarked face, normal face) between-subjects design was used. Participants were asked to complete a malevolent creativity task (MCT). In Study 2 (n = 131), we used a perceived vulnerability to disease scale (PVD) to assess people's dispositional tendencies of concerns about disease and selected high as well as low PVD participants. A 2 (PVD: high, low) × 2 (disease-connoting cue: obese, average-weight) between-subjects design was used. Participants were asked to complete the negotiation task to assess their MC. The results of Study 1 showed that, compared with participants in the normal face condition, participants in the birthmarked face condition showed higher MC fluency and total MC when they were exposed to situational disease prime. Compared with the natural disaster prime group, the infectious disease prime group showed higher MC fluency and total MC when they were provoked by a birthmark person. The results of Study 2 showed that, compared with the average-weight condition, the obese condition led to higher MC fluency and originality among high PVD participants. Compared with low PVD participants, high PVD participants showed higher MC fluency and originality when they negotiated with an obese person. Our studies suggest that among people whose BIS is situationally or chronically activated, birthmarks and obesity could increase MC, and people's malevolent creativity might be induced by disease-connoting cues during the pandemic.

Childhood Trauma and Malevolent Creativity in Chinese College Students: Moderated Mediation by Psychological Resilience and Aggression

Although a previous study has shown that childhood trauma influences malevolent creativity, aggression and psychological resilience have been linked with childhood trauma and creativity. However, little is known about the complex correlations among these factors in Chinese college students. The present study aimed to investigate the mediating role of aggression and the moderating role of psychological resilience between childhood trauma and malevolent creativity. A total of 389 undergraduates were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. The moderated mediation model was conducted to explore whether aggression mediated the correlation between childhood trauma and malevolent creativity and whether psychological resilience moderated the indirect role of childhood trauma. The results showed that childhood trauma positively correlated with aggression and malevolent creativity and was negatively associated with psychological resilience. Aggression partly mediated the association of childhood trauma with malevolent creativity. Resilience moderated the indirect effect of the mediation model, such that the indirect effect of childhood trauma on malevolent creativity through aggression increased as the level of resilience increased. The study indicated that childhood trauma exposure is associated with malevolent creativity behavior, and aggression mediated this association. The level of psychological resilience differentiates the indirect paths of childhood trauma on malevolent creativity. These results have important implications for preventing and containing expressions of malevolent creativity.

Enjoying others' distress and indifferent to threat? Changes in prefrontal-posterior coupling during social-emotional processing are linked to malevolent creativity

Malevolent creativity is characterized by malicious interpersonal goals aimed at damaging others. Neurocognitive processing patterns of negative social-emotional signals may explain variance in this disruptive phenomenon. This study examined whether individuals' brain responses to emotional expressions of others are linked to their capacity of malevolent creativity in a psychometric test. State-dependent changes of prefrontal-posterior EEG coherence were recorded while n = 60 participants listened to other people's anger, desperate crying, and laughter. These EEG measures were used to indicate affective dispositions towards emotional absorption (decreased coherence) or detachment (increased coherence) from others' emotional states. Results showed that higher malevolent creativity was reflected in relatively greater increases of EEG coherence during others' expressions of anger, and conversely, relatively greater decreases of EEG coherence during others' desperate crying. This pattern suggests that the generation of creative ideas for malicious, antisocial purposes may be partly attributed to an indifference towards others' aggression and potential retaliation, and partly to finding others' adversity rewarding on a neuronal level, increasing the quantity of ideas and the chances of hurting others. This first study linking malevolent creativity to social-emotional brain functions may offer novel insights into affective dispositions that may help understand individuals' potential for creative destruction.

Perceived Organizational Support and Creativity of Science-Technology Talents in the Digital Age: The Effects of Affective Commitment, Innovative Self-Efficacy and Digital Thinking

Background

The impact of perceived organizational support on the creativity of science-technology talents in the digital era is an important domain for fostering innovation power and the long-term competitive advantage of enterprises. The main purpose of this study is to reveal the "black box" mechanism of perceived organizational support on the creativity of science-technology talents in the digital environment, guide enterprises to attach importance to perceived organizational support and enhance the creativity of science-technology talents.

Methods

Based on resource conservation theory and social exchange theory, this study took the science-technology talents of Chinese high-tech enterprises as the research object, combined 380 matching data of science-technology talents and supervisors, and used AMOS, MPLUS, and SPSS software to test all hypotheses.

Results

Perceived organizational support has a significant positive impact on the creativity of science-technology talents, affective commitment and innovative self-efficacy. Affective commitment and innovative self-efficacy have significant positive effects on the creativity of science-technology talents. Digital thinking positively moderates the relationship between perceived organizational support and affective commitment, innovative self-efficacy. Affective commitment and innovative self-efficacy play a moderated mediation role between perceived organizational support and the creativity of science-technology talents.

Conclusion

Perceived organizational support promotes the creativity of science-technology talents through affective commitment and innovative self-efficacy, which is moderated by digital thinking. These findings not only help deepen and expand the theoretical research on perceived organizational support and creativity, but also inspire managers to guide science-technology talents to work creatively from the aspects of affective commitment, innovative self-efficacy and digital thinking.

Personality Traits as Predictors of Malevolent Creative Ideation in Offenders

Malevolent creativity, which can be defined as creativity that is deliberately planned to damage others, is a concept that explains how the capacity to generate novel and effective outcomes (creativity) may, on occasion, be misapplied. The present study used 130 male inmates of the Oradea Maximum Security Penitentiary in Romania to explore the ability of a set of personality variables (the dark triad, self-efficacy, and self-esteem) to predict malevolent creative ideation. The findings indicate that Machiavellianism and self-efficacy were significant predictors of malevolent creative ideation in the form of lying, while only Machiavellianism was a significant predictor of malevolent creative ideation in the form of hurting people. In addition, the present study found significant differences among subgroups in the sample, with more experienced offenders showing higher levels of malevolent creative ideation.

Middle Occipital Area Differentially Associates with Malevolent versus Benevolent Creativity: An fNIRS investigation

This study aimed to explore the neural correlates underlying idea generation during malevolent creativity (MC) using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Participants were asked to solve problems during three types of creativity tasks: malevolent creativity task (MCT), benevolent creativity task (BCT), and alternative uses task (AUT). fNIRS was used to record individual cerebral activity during the tasks. The results revealed that participants demonstrated weaker neural activation in the right middle occipital area (rMO) and lower neural coupling (NC) between the right frontopolar cortex (rFPC) and rMO during MCT than during BCT and AUT. These suggest that r-MO activity and NC between the rFPC and rMO may distinguish between malevolent and benevolent forms of creative ideation.

The evil within: The AMORAL model of dark creativity

The dark side of creativity entails using original thought to meet a selfish, negative, or evil goal, with or without the deliberate intent to harm others. Recent empirical advances have studied the behavioral correlates of such creativity, including associations with aggression, deception, and subclinical psychopathy. The time, therefore, seems apt to propose a theoretical framework for dark creativity’s development and manifestation. This article outlines the AMORAL model of dark creativity, which traces a creative action from its Antecedents to Mechanisms and Operants to its Realization, and to the subsequent Aftereffects and Legacy of the act. We use both real-life and simulated examples to illustrate the application of the theory across multiple domains, from law enforcement to interpersonal relationships. Our goal is to help guide future scholarship and measurement.

The Main Approaches and Concepts of Creative Thinking

<p>The research is aimed at systematizing the most effective approaches to the study of creative thinking in foreign and domestic science. The following directions of studying creative thinking are considered: on the basis with which it is associated; on the paradigm that underlies it; on essential grounds; on the typology of creative achievements; on the basis of the approach developed within a certain scientific school; on the study of the features of the activity process; on developing practices; on adherence to the main factor influencing creative thinking; based on the allocation of components in the structure; based on the differences between creative and non-creative thinking; compensation of undeveloped components of creative thinking by strengthening more developed ones; neuropsychological approach (cognitive), from the point of view of self-actualization of personality. After the analysis, we tend to believe that the multicomponent consideration of creative thinking is the most effective one. When studying and developing creative thinking, it is important to pay attention not only to the operational component of creative thinking, but also semantic, motivational, emotional components (interest, joy from engaging in creative activity), which determine moral meanings, attitudes, states that ensure the manifestation of creative thinking in activity. Only with the simultaneous development of semantic, activity and emotional components of creative thinking, its development will be the most harmonious one, being carried out with the less effort on the part of students and a teacher.</p>

Failure to reappraise: Malevolent creativity is linked to revenge ideation and impaired reappraisal inventiveness in the face of stressful, anger-eliciting events

Background and objectives: The complexities of daily life often necessitate creative ideas to successfully cope with negative social situations. This study investigated the relationship of two types of creativity that may be elicited by similar contexts but are associated with different goals and impact of ideas: reappraisal inventiveness (the capability to generate manifold reappraisals for negative situations) and malevolent creativity, capturing the inventiveness in intentionally harming others.Design and methods: In 73 women, these variables were assessed by performance tests depicting real-life, anger-eliciting situations. Additionally, participants reported their trait anger and depressive symptoms.Results: Inventiveness (ideational fluency) was positively correlated between the two tasks, probably indicating shared divergent thinking demands. A more intricate pattern emerged for quality aspects of generated ideas. Participants inventing particularly harmful ideas for damaging others generated fewer valid reappraisals and displayed less problem-oriented thinking during reappraisal. Greater inventiveness in damaging others was linked to more revenge-related ideation during reappraisal attempts, which also correlated with self-reported depressive symptoms.Conclusions: A higher capacity for malevolent ideation may potentially hamper successful coping with stressful, anger-eliciting events and, as a result, may advance an adverse spiral of reinforcement. Considering these links may help tailor psychotherapeutic interventions to individuals' specific predispositions.