The Effort Heuristic in Little-c Evaluations: An Effort-Derogation Effect

Abstract

Previous studies suggest that the effort invested by the producer can serve as a cue for product quality. People tend to infer better quality from high-effort information. This relationship, termed the effort heuristic, has been repeatedly identified in evaluating Pro-c level accomplishments; however, whether it holds in little-c level evaluations remains unclear. Therefore, this study examined the impact of effort information on evaluating little-c products. Twenty drawings from a previous figural test of little-c were used as assessment materials. Undergraduate participants rated the creative quality of drawings under high- and low-effort conditions across three experiments. The results demonstrated that while participants used effort as a heuristic in identifying creative little-c outputs, a reverse pattern emerged—high-effort information was associated with lower ratings. When evaluating little-c (vs. Pro-c) products, individuals tended to devalue (vs. praise) the creator's effort. We suggest that when judging different levels of creativity, information about the creator's effort may prime different creative beliefs in raters, resulting in divergent attribution tendencies and opposite rating biases. Our findings highlight the necessity of considering the level of creative products and the raters’ creative mindsets when evaluating creativity.