Daniel Sligte

Oxytonergic circuitry sustains and enables creative cognition in humans

Creativity enables humans to adapt flexibly to changing circumstances, to manage complex social relations and to survive and prosper through social, technological and medical innovations. In humans, chronic, trait-based as well as temporary, state-based approach orientation has been linked to increased capacity for divergent rather than convergent thinking, to more global and holistic processing styles and to more original ideation and creative problem solving. Here, we link creative cognition to oxytocin, a hypothalamic neuropeptide known to up-regulate approach orientation in both animals and humans. Study 1 (N = 492) showed that plasma oxytocin predicts novelty-seeking temperament. Study 2 (N = 110) revealed that genotype differences in a polymorphism in the oxytocin receptor gene rs1042778 predicted creative ideation, with GG/GT-carriers being more original than TT-carriers. Using double-blind placebo-controlled between-subjects designs, Studies 3-6 (N = 191) finally showed that intranasal oxytocin (vs matching placebo) reduced analytical reasoning, and increased holistic processing, divergent thinking and creative performance. We conclude that the oxytonergic circuitry sustains and enables the day-to-day creativity humans need for survival and prosperity and discuss implications.

The Right Side? Under Time Pressure, Approach Motivation Leads to Right-Oriented Bias

Approach motivation, a focus on achieving positive outcomes, is related to relative left-hemispheric brain activation, which translates to a variety of right-oriented behavioral biases. In two studies, we found that approach-motivated individuals display a right-oriented bias, but only when they are forced to act quickly. In a task in which they had to divide lines into two equal parts, approach-motivated individuals bisected the line at a point farther to the right than avoidance-motivated individuals did, but only when they worked under high time pressure. In our analysis of all Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup penalty shoot-outs, we found that goalkeepers were two times more likely to dive to the right than to the left when their team was behind, a situation that we conjecture induces approach motivation. Because penalty takers shot toward the two sides of the goal equally often, the goalkeepers’ right-oriented bias was dysfunctional, allowing more goals to be scored. Directional biases may facilitate group coordination but prove maladaptive in individual settings and interpersonal competition.

Leaving a Legacy Neutralizes Negative Effects of Death Anxiety on Creativity

Mortality salience (MS) can lead to a paralyzing terror, and to cope with this, people strive for literal or symbolic immortality. As MS leads to conformity and narrow-mindedness, we predicted that MS would lead to lower creativity, unless creativity itself could lead to leaving a legacy and thus symbolic immortality. We show that this pattern holds (Experiment 1), but only when creativity is socially valued (Experiment 2). Finally, especially individualistic people are more creative under MS when they can leave a legacy than when they cannot, and high originality predicts subsequent accessibility of death thoughts (Experiment 3). Implications are discussed.

Does Approach Motivation Induce Right-Oriented Bias? Reply to Price and Wolfers (2014)

In 2011, we tested the hypothesis that people exhibit a right-oriented bias when they are approach motivated and act quickly (Roskes, Sligte, Shalvi, & De Dreu, 2011). An experiment showed that when people had to act quickly, they bisected lines farther to the right when they were approach motivated than when they were avoid-ance motivated. Analysis of archival data on soccer pen-alty shoot-outs further revealed that goalkeepers dived more to the right when their team was behind than when their team was not behind, a situation we propose induces approach motivation.Price and Wolfers (2014) challenge whether the right-oriented bias manifests itself in goalkeepers’ behavior. They make three critiques of our findings: (a) The effect does not replicate, (b) an alternative coding of “being behind” eliminates the effect, and (c) the goalkeepers’ tendency to dive right is not dysfunctional. Our analysis suggests that the bias exists, although Price and Wolfers’s alternative coding raises interesting questions about the exact settings that evoke approach motivation. We are happy to see that more data are being collected, which is important for enhancing understanding of the phenomenon.Prior research has demonstrated an association between approach motivation and a variety of right-ori-ented biases. This association is explained by increased left-hemispheric brain activation under approach motiva-tion, which enhances attention and action readiness toward the right (Vallortigara & Rogers, 2005). For exam-ple, dogs wag their tails toward the right when they observe their owners (Quaranta, Siniscalchi, & Vallortigara, 2007), and when quickly dividing lines into equal parts, approach-motivated people divide them to the right of their centers (Nash, McGregor, & Inzlicht, 2010). In our original study, we tested whether right-oriented bias under approach motivation is more likely to appear when people have to act fast than when they have more time in which to override their automatic responses. Price and Wolfers challenge neither the theory nor the results of our experiment. Rather, they challenge whether approach motivation evokes right-oriented bias in goal-keepers during penalty shoot-outs.

Illegitimacy undermines leader creativity only under stable power

Abstract Power hierarchies are ubiquitous in human societies and can improve behavioral coordination, efficiency and individual incentives to climb the hierarchical ladder. However, when power differentials lack legitimacy or are unstable, power struggles and conflict may emerge, as low power people may try to seize power. Power struggles and conflict at the interpersonal level can impede interpersonal cooperation, increase interpersonal competition, and distract individuals from the task at hand (Greer & Van Kleef, 2010). Here we examined the interactive effects of legitimacy and stability of power differences at an interpersonal level, and found that under power instability, legitimacy did not alter the creativity of highpower individuals. Under power stability, however, more creative insights were achieved when power was legitimate rather than illegitimate. Implications are discussed.