ERIC Number: EJ1458353
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1040-0419
EISSN: EISSN-1532-6934
Malevolent Creativity as Parochial Altruism? Examining the Intergroup Bases of New and Harmful Ideas
Tin L. Nguyen; Alexis L. d'Amato; Scarlett R. Miller; Samuel T. Hunter
Creativity Research Journal, v37 n1 p104-119 2025
Emerging theory and evidence suggest that intergroup relations may stimulate malevolent creativity, but the intergroup foundations of malevolent creativity remain unexplored. Drawing from theories of intergroup conflict, we argue that malevolent creativity can be understood through the lens of parochial altruism, one's willingness to partake in personally risky activity to harm outgroups (i.e. parochialism) in favor of an ingroup (i.e. altruism). Accordingly, malevolent creativity can be viewed as the willful generation and consideration of novel ideas for oneself to enact harm on an outgroup on behalf of an ingroup. Many instances of parochial altruism such as war or terrorism begin from strong sentiments of ingroup love and become more likely when paired with reasons to aggress against an outgroup. Extending this logic to malevolent creativity, we contend that ingroup affinity predicts malevolent creativity and that this relation grows stronger when people hold hostile attitudes toward the outgroup--or, in the absence of hostility, are directly provoked by outgroup members. We test our propositions in a sample of 307 undergraduate students and find partial support for our predictions.
Descriptors: Undergraduate Students, Group Behavior, Group Unity, Group Dynamics, Altruism, Social Attitudes, Negative Attitudes, Social Distance, Intergroup Relations, Antisocial Behavior, Social Bias, Crime, Creativity, Behavior Problems
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: US Department of Homeland Security
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: 20STTPC0000102