Creativity May Favor Cheating

According to the conclusions of a new study by Duke University researchers, it would appear that people who display more creativity are also more likely to cheat on their significant others than their less-creative peers.

One possible explanation for this could be that creativity also allows individuals to rationalize their actions in a way that makes their decisions seem not that bad. “Creative sparks may lead individuals to take unethical routes when searching for solutions to problems and tasks,” Harvard University expert and lead study researcher Francesca Gino, PhD, explains.

In experimental setups she and her team developed with Duke University coauthor Dan Ariely, PhD, it was found that intelligence was not related to cheating behaviors. In other words, intelligent, but less-creative individuals were not as likely to cheat as creative test subjects.

This study provides some interesting insight into the role of creativity in the human mind, and the team is determined to explore it in more depth. Future studies will analyze creative individuals in other settings as well, trying to determine this very aspect of their minds, PsychCentral reports.