title: The bias against creativity: why people desire but reject creative ideas.
abstract: People often reject creative ideas, even when espousing creativity as a desired goal. To explain this paradox, we propose that people can hold a bias against creativity that is not necessarily overt and that is activated when people experience a motivation to reduce uncertainty. In two experiments, we manipulated uncertainty using different methods, including an uncertainty-reduction prime. The results of both experiments demonstrated the existence of a negative bias against creativity (relative to practicality) when participants experienced uncertainty. Furthermore, this bias against creativity interfered with participants' ability to recognize a creative idea. These results reveal a concealed barrier that creative actors may face as they attempt to gain acceptance for their novel ideas.
authors: Management Department, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 3620 Locust Walk, Ste. 2000, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. jennm@wharton.upenn.edu
authors: Jennifer S
authors: JS
authors: Mueller
authors: Shimul
authors: S
authors: Melwani
authors: Jack A
authors: JA
authors: Goncalo
mesh_terms: D001290:Attitude; D003405:Creativity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D011287:Prejudice; D013240:Stereotyping; D035501:Uncertainty; D055815:Young Adult