Enjoying others’ distress and indifferent to threat? Changes in prefrontal-posterior coupling during social-emotional processing are linked to malevolent creativity

Abstract

Malevolent creativity is characterized by malicious interpersonal goals aimed at damaging others. Neurocognitive processing patterns of negative social-emotional signals may explain variance in this disruptive phenomenon. This study examined whether individuals’ brain responses to emotional expressions of others are linked to their capacity of malevolent creativity in a psychometric test. State-dependent changes of prefrontal-posterior EEG coherence were recorded while n = 60 participants listened to other people’s anger, desperate crying, and laughter. These EEG measures were used to indicate affective dispositions towards emotional absorption (decreased coherence) or detachment (increased coherence) from others’ emotional states. Results showed that higher malevolent creativity was reflected in relatively greater increases of EEG coherence during others’ expressions of anger, and conversely, relatively greater decreases of EEG coherence during others’ desperate crying. This pattern suggests that the generation of creative ideas for malicious, antisocial purposes may be partly attributed to an indifference towards others’ aggression and potential retaliation, and partly to finding others’ adversity rewarding on a neuronal level, increasing the quantity of ideas and the chances of hurting others. This first study linking malevolent creativity to social-emotional brain functions may offer novel insights into affective dispositions that may help understand individuals’ potential for creative destruction.