Risk-Taking and Creativity: Convergent, but Not Divergent Thinking Is Better in Low-Risk Takers

The relationship between risk-taking and creativity is critical to understanding social harmony and innovation. Although some studies have assessed the link between risk-taking and divergent thinking, the association between risk-taking and convergent thinking remains unclear. Two studies were condu...

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Veröffentlicht in:Creativity research journal 2018-04, Vol.30 (2), p.224-231
Hauptverfasser: Shen, Wangbing, Hommel, Bernhard, Yuan, Yuan, Chang, Liu, Zhang, Wei
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:The relationship between risk-taking and creativity is critical to understanding social harmony and innovation. Although some studies have assessed the link between risk-taking and divergent thinking, the association between risk-taking and convergent thinking remains unclear. Two studies were conducted to systemically investigate whether risk-taking is linked to convergent thinking. In Study 1, a sample of 127 healthy participants performed a Chinese remote associate test (RAT) and completed a risk-taking questionnaire. As predicted, risk-taking was negatively correlated with RAT performance, implying that risk-taking has a negative association with convergent thinking. Study 2 was an online survey study that replicated Study 1 and extended the measures to include self-rated risk and a measure of divergent thinking (the alternate uses task). The findings were fully replicated, showing that low risk-taking goes with better convergent thinking and risk-taking was not significantly correlated with divergent thinking. Furthermore, the risk-taking/convergent-thinking relationship was best described by a linear regression model in both studies. Taken together, these results suggest that appropriate reductions in risk-taking can boost convergent thinking.
ISSN:1040-0419
1532-6934
DOI:10.1080/10400419.2018.1446852