Moral Ambiguity in Narratives Decreases Creative Performance in Highly Creative People

Abstract

This article seeks to further our understanding of the effects of morality in the media on individual creativity. We present an experiment testing whether morally ambiguous (versus clear) narrative endings can enhance or diminish divergent thinking in a subsequent task. Recently proposed understandings of mass-media entertainment seem to imply moral ambiguity should diminish performance, whereas research on the ‘dark side of creativity’ seems to imply it should enhance performance for highly creative individuals. We elaborate on both views and show results indicating morally ambiguous stories actually decrease creativity (defined in terms of fluency in divergent thinking), at least in the short term, for individuals high on trait creativity. Discussion centres on the multidimensional relationships between media and creativity.