Endorse creative harm, think creative harm, do creative harm

Creativity is generally seen as a positive engine for innovation and societal progress. However, the dark side of creativity shows that people are quite capable of using creative ideas to intentionally harm others. Yet, the phenomenon of malevolent creativity is not limited to extreme terrorism and crime, but also occurs in our everyday lives in terms of creative and harmful lies, manipulation, theft, online bullying and bullying, vandalism or even aggressive humour. For society, it is a massive problem that these actions are not only antisocial, but also original and unique, and therefore difficult to predict and to prevent, maximizing their potential damage. Additionally, in the online world, creative terror using pranks or revenge acts is often hugely popular, suggesting that people view creative aggression less negatively than ordinary aggression. In sum, malevolent creativity is a costly social problem; yet our knowledge of how malevolent creative ideas turn into malevolent creative actions and the extent to which people support malevolent creative ideas is very limited. The current research project implements three different studies to examine how malevolent creativity is perceived, conceived and implemented in real life. Using modern brain imaging techniques, we also take a closer look into the brain to understand the neural origins of creative aggression. Study 1 of the project involves a large-scale survey of malevolent creativity in people`s lives through experience sampling in order to determine the frequency and perception of creative aggression in different populations, e.g., online communities, people with aggression problems, or horror fans. Study 2 uses knowledge from study 1 to examine different conditions in which malevolent creativity might likely occur, for example, strong provocation, high anonymity, or supportive group dynamics known from mobbing or bullying. Our aim is to specifically examine the circumstances under which people most likely endorse, generate, and implement malevolent creative ideas. Finally, study 3 uses functional magnetic resonance to predict which cognitive and affective factors contribute to people expression of malevolent creativity in everyday life. For this project, which is primarily carried out at the University of Graz, we will closely collaborate with creativity experts at the University of Amsterdam. This international research interface on brain and behavior aims to make a lasting contribution to understanding how, why and when evil creative ideas become evil creative acts.