Editing Creativity (section)

== Malevolent creativity ==
{{Main|Malevolent creativity}}

"Malevolent creativity" is the "dark side" of creativity.<ref name="Cropley Dark side">{{cite book |title=The Dark Side of Creativity |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-521-13960-1 |editor1-last=Cropley |editor1-first=David H. |location=Cambridge |editor2-last=Cropley |editor2-first=Arthur J. |editor3-last=Kaufman |editor3-first=James C. |editor4-last=Runco |editor4-first=Mark A. |display-editors=3}}</ref><ref name="The dark side of creativity">{{cite journal |last1=McLaren |first1=R.B. |year=1993 |title=The dark side of creativity |journal=Creat. Res. J. |volume=6 |issue=1–2 |pages=137–144 |doi=10.1080/10400419309534472}}</ref> This type of creativity is not typically accepted within society and is defined by the intention to cause harm to others through original and innovative means. While it is often associated with criminal behavior, it can also be observed in ordinary day-to-day life as lying, cheating, and betrayal.<ref name="Measure Malevolent Creativity 2016">{{cite journal |last1=Hao |first1=N. |last2=Tang |first2=M. |last3=Yang |first3=J. |last4=Wang |first4=Q. |last5=Runco |first5=M.A. |year=2016 |title=A New Tool to Measure Malevolent Creativity: The Malevolent Creativity Behavior Scale |journal=Frontiers in Psychology |volume=7 |page=682 |doi=10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00682 |pmc=4870273 |pmid=27242596 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

Malevolent creativity should be distinguished from negative creativity in that negative creativity may unintentionally cause harm to others, whereas malevolent creativity is malevolently motivated.

===Crime===
Malevolent creativity is a key contributor to crime and in its most destructive form can even manifest as terrorism. As creativity requires deviating from the conventional, there is permanent tension between being creative and going too far—in some cases to the point of breaking the law. Aggression is a key predictor of malevolent creativity, and increased levels of aggression correlate with a higher likelihood of committing crime.<ref>{{cite book |last=Berkowitz |first=Leonard |title=Aggression: A social psychological analysis |publisher=McGraw-Hill |year=1962 |location=New York, N.Y.}}{{page number needed|date=July 2023}}</ref>

===Predictive factors===
Although everyone shows some levels of malevolent creativity under certain conditions, those that have a higher propensity towards it have increased tendencies to deceive and manipulate others for their own gain. While malevolent creativity appears to dramatically increase when an individual is treated unfairly, personality, particularly aggressiveness, is also a key predictor in anticipating levels of malevolent thinking. Researchers Harris and Reiter-Palmon investigated the role of aggression in levels of malevolent creativity, in particular levels of implicit aggression and the tendency to employ aggressive actions in response to problem solving. The personality traits of physical aggression, conscientiousness, [[emotional intelligence]], and implicit aggression all seem to be related{{how|date=July 2023}} with malevolent creativity.<ref name="The dark side of creativity" /> Harris and Reiter-Palmon's research showed that when subjects were presented with a problem that designed to trigger malevolent creativity, participants high in implicit aggression and low in premeditation expressed the largest number of malevolently themed solutions. When presented with the more benign problem designed to trigger prosocial motives of helping others and cooperating, those high in implicit aggression, even if they tended to be highly impulsive, were far less destructive in their imagined solutions. The researchers concluded premeditation, more than implicit aggression, controlled an individual's expression of malevolent creativity.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Harris |first1=D.J. |last2=Reiter-Palmon |first2=R. |year=2015 |title=Fast and furious: The influence of implicit aggression, premeditation, and provoking situations on malevolent creativity |journal=Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=54–64 |doi=10.1037/a0038499}}</ref>

The current measure for malevolent creativity is the 13-item Malevolent Creativity Behaviour Scale (MCBS).<ref name="Measure Malevolent Creativity 2016" />