The Contradicting Effect of Intergroup Relations on Creativity Recognition of Creators and Creations

The current study addresses the paradox of creativity recognition, a novel phenomenon in which evaluators appreciate the potential of in-group creators, yet undervalue their creative ideas. Based on construal level theory and social identity theory, we propose that the different perspectives of intergroup relations (i.e., social distance and group identity) are activated by the creations and creators respectively. Four studies aim to reveal the cause of such a novel phenomenon. Our results show that the effects of intergroup relations are contradictory in the creativity recognition of creators and their creations (Study 1). When the target is the creation, the evaluators form a high-level construal to evaluate outsiders’ ideas and spot higher creativity from ideas of outsiders than those of insiders (Studies 2 and 4). By contrast, when the target is the creator, they perceive in-group creators to be more creative than out-group counterparts because of intergroup bias (i.e., perceived out-group threat or in-group liking) (Studies 3 and 4). The opposing effects are counteracted when both creators and their creations are evaluated simultaneously (Study 4). We provide a theoretical framework to describe how and why the paradox emerges.