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.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 99-105 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Psychological Science |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 2013 |
Keywords
- categorical thinking
- closed-mindedness
- cognitive style
- creativity
- essentialism
- lay theories of race
- motivated cognition
- racial and ethnic attitudes and relations
- social cognition
- social construction
- stereotyping