The underdog advantage in creativity

Abstract

Underdogs are expected to lose. Yet, many underdogs—from the Biblical David to today’s Harry Potter—emerge victorious. What do underdogs who win against seemingly impossible odds have in common? One answer may be creativity: they find creative ways to reach their goals. To determine how creativity figures into the success of underdogs, we randomly assigned participants in this study to either of two groups: one that reads a story about an underdog and one that reads a story about a top dog. After reading their respective stories, the participants completed the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. As we predicted, participants who had read about an underdog had higher creativity scores and produced a wider range of ideas than those who had read about a top dog. Those results suggested that their contemplation of successful underdogs had stimulated the participants’ creativity. The implication is that the underdog experience may itself predispose individuals to finding creative solutions.