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Business Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Labor Relations

Selected Works

Jack Goncalo

Selected Works

2011

Creativity

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Business

Embodied Metaphors And Creative “Acts”, Angela K.-Y. Leung, Suntae Kim, Evan Polman, Laysee Ong, Lin Qiu, Jack A. Goncalo, Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks Nov 2011

Embodied Metaphors And Creative “Acts”, Angela K.-Y. Leung, Suntae Kim, Evan Polman, Laysee Ong, Lin Qiu, Jack A. Goncalo, Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks

Jack Goncalo

Creativity is a highly sought after skill. To inspire people’s creativity, prescriptive advice in the form of metaphors abound: We are encouraged to think outside the box, to consider the problem on one hand, then on the other hand, and to put two and two together to achieve creative breakthroughs. These metaphors suggest a connection between concrete bodily experiences and creative cognition. Inspired by recent advances on body-mind linkages under the emerging vernacular of embodied cognition, we explored for the first time whether enacting metaphors for creativity enhances creative problem-solving. In five studies, findings revealed that both physically and psychologically …


The Bias Against Creativity: Why People Desire But Reject Creative Ideas, Jennifer S. Mueller, Shimul Melwani, Jack A. Goncalo Aug 2011

The Bias Against Creativity: Why People Desire But Reject Creative Ideas, Jennifer S. Mueller, Shimul Melwani, Jack A. Goncalo

Jack Goncalo

People often reject creative ideas even when espousing creativity as a desired goal. To explain this paradox, we propose that people can hold a bias against creativity that is not necessarily overt, and which is activated when people experience a motivation to reduce uncertainty. In two studies, we measure and manipulate uncertainty using different methods including: discrete uncertainty feelings, and an uncertainty reduction prime. The results of both studies demonstrated a negative bias toward creativity (relative to practicality) when participants experienced uncertainty. Furthermore, the bias against creativity interfered with participants’ ability to recognize a creative idea. These results reveal a …