The lead author of a new scientific paper, The Creativity Paradox published in the New Ideas in Psychology journal, said that there is a "trend in creativity research" which regards creativity as just "wonderful and creative individuals, or everyone is creative at different levels."
Eric Bonetto added that creativity is a great characteristic.
The lead author also said it is beneficial for humans to be creative, although there are social regulations that could sanction too creative people.
Reports on this new finding also said, creativity is seen in companies, as well as in science laboratories too, where at times new ideas are unwelcomed as they stray too much from the standards.
Bonetto said that creativity is undeniably seen, too, with Nobel Prize winners who are acclaimed only decades after their discovery.
Creativity Examined
Bonetto's focus is on the so-called "'epistemic needs,' the human need for knowledge," not to mention a reliable insight of the world.
The lead author, together with his team, Nicholas Pichot, creative researcher; Jean-Baptiste Pavani, emotion researcher; and Jais Adam-Troiand, evolutionary psychologist, investigated the dangers of a trait that is progressively being foreshown as the essential skill of the 21st century which is creativity.
The Creativity Paradox recognizes the fact that dangerous, unusual creative behaviors have a lot of benefits. Breaking established norms enables the so-called "avant-garde artists," as well as innovators, to develop and solve problems in ways that are advantageous not just to the individual but to the society, as well.
Reports on the study also said that if the work is received positively, it is important to note that creativity releases endorphins, promoting social bonding.
Social Threat for Creatives in Times of Crisis
According to Mark Schaller, a psychological scientist, a human's physiological immune system enables him to combat threats he has once encountered in his body.
One's behavioral immune system, a mechanism he initially described, triggers behaviors to identify and fight off threats before entering the body.
As specified in the new research, the behavioral immune system tends to make a person more conservative and observant of strict social rules. It may even add to what the researchers called "xenophobia and ethnocentrism."
The behavioral immune system of a person goes into "hyperdrive" in times of great environmental threat like this pandemic.
During a crisis, we tend to abide more strictly by social norms, as well as to stereotypes. More so, we also opt to interact more with members of our own family or group than with others.
We tend to be more antagonistic to risky, norm-breaking socially different behaviors and the creatives embodying them since norms wrap around us as if they are our "social security blanket.
When Environmental Dangers Abound
In times environmental threats or dangers abound, humans are likely to see a sharp decrease in creative risk-taking.
Bonetto explained, social regulations could "explain the rarity," as well as the scarcity of creative behaviors in people's daily lives, and the insufficiency of looming creativity because people would expect the social pressures, "the social sanctions."
He added, "I can be creative" and never showcase creative behaviors as my environment "regulates my behaviors."
The silver lining here, according to Bonetto, and this new research is that, if creativity developed and people are still creative "after all our evolution," it is due to the fact that the advantages to being creative overcome the risk, as a whole.
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