title: Not just for stereotyping anymore: racial essentialism reduces domain-general creativity.
abstract: Individuals who believe that racial groups have fixed underlying essences use stereotypes more than do individuals who believe that racial categories are arbitrary and malleable social-political constructions. Would this essentialist mind-set also lead to less creativity? We suggest that the functional utility derived from essentialism induces a habitual closed-mindedness that transcends the social domain and hampers creativity. Across studies, using both individual difference measures (in a pilot test) and experimental manipulations (Experiments 1, 2a, and 2b), we found that an essentialist mind-set is indeed hazardous for creativity, with the relationship mediated by motivated closed-mindedness (Experiments 2a and 2b). These results held across samples of majority cultural-group members (Caucasian Americans, Israelis) and minority-group members (Asian Americans), as well as across different measures of creativity (flexibility, association, insight). Our findings have important implications for understanding the connection between racial intolerance and creativity.
authors.affiliation: Recanati School of Business, TelAviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel. ctadmor@post.tau.ac.il
authors.forename: Carmit T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Tadmor
authors.forename: Melody M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Chao
authors.forename: Ying-yi
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.forename: Jeffrey T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Polzer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001364:Awareness; D003405:Creativity; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008297:Male; D010865:Pilot Projects; D063505:Racism; D012718:Set, Psychology; D013240:Stereotyping; D055815:Young Adult