Inspired and appreciated by the group: The social identity approach to creativity

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Oxford University Press via the DOI in this recordThe processes of creative production and creativity recognition are both understood to be central to the dynamics of creativity. Nevertheless, they are generally seen by creativity researchers as theoretically unrelated. In contrast, social identity theorizing suggests a model of creativity in which groups play a role both in inspiring creative acts and in determining the reception they are given. More specifically, this approach argues that shared social identity (or lack of it) motivates individuals to rise to particular creative challenges and provides a basis for certain forms of creativity to be recognized (or disregarded). This chapter explicates the logic underlying the social identity approach and summarizes some of the key evidence that supports it

On the attitudinal consequences of being mindful: Links between mindfulness and attitudinal ambivalence

ArticleThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from SAGE Publications via the DOI in this record.A series of studies examined whether mindfulness is associated with the experience of attitudinal ambivalence. Studies 1A and 1B found that mindful individuals expressed greater comfort holding ambivalent views and reported feeling ambivalent less often. More mindful individuals also responded more positively to feelings of uncertainty (as assessed in Study 1B). Study 2 replicated these effects and demonstrated that mindful individuals had lower objective and subjective ambivalence across a range of attitude objects but did not differ in attitude valence, extremity, positivity/negativity, strength, or the need to evaluate. Study 3 showed that the link between greater ambivalence and negative affect was buffered by mindfulness, such that there was no link between the amount of ambivalence and negative affect among more mindful individuals. The results are discussed with respect to the benefits of mindfulness in relation to ambivalence and affect.Parts of this article were funded by a Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant awarded to the first author

Mindfulness and social identity: Predicting well‐being in a high‐stress environment

This is the final version. Available on open access from Wiley via the DOI in this recordSocial identity processes and mindfulness are two important predictors of wellbeing. Yet, to date, these predictors have been studied independently, within separate research fields. This paper aims to provide an initial integration of these two research fields. Our research was conducted in a context characterised by multiple chronic stressors: A maximum security prison in Kenya. In particular, two studies measured social identification with a mindfulness group and dispositional mindfulness. We investigated the effects of these constructs on three wellbeing measures: mental wellbeing, resilience (Studies 1 & 2), and reduction of substance use (Study 2). Our results, replicated across two studies (Study 1: N = 82, Study 2: N = 145), revealed that both social identification with the mindfulness group and mindfulness predicted psychological outcomes. Social identification explained variance in mental wellbeing and resilience in addition to the variance explained by mindfulness. Study 2 additionally showed that both identification and mindfulness were positively related to a reduction in substance use. However, when examined together, social identification held all the explanatory power, and mindfulness was no longer a significant predictor. From the overall results, we argue that social identity processes can be fruitfully combined with mindfulness in wellbeing programmes delivered in high-stress environments such as prisons. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC

And now for something completely different? The impact of group membership on perceptions of creativity

Authors' draft; final version published in Social influence; available online at http://www.informaworld.com/ Embargo until 1 July 2010A wealth of historical, cultural, and biographical evidence points to the fact that there is considerable variation in different people's judgments of creative products. What is creative to one person is deviant to another, and creative efforts often fail to be given the enthusiastic reception that their creators anticipate and think they deserve. Unpacking the roots of these discrepancies, this paper develops an analysis of creativity that is informed by the social identity approach. This analysis is supported by a review of previous research that points to the way in which perceptions of creativity are structured by both self-categorization and social norms (and their interaction). Further support for the analysis is provided by two experiments (Ns = 100, 125) which support the hypothesis that ingroup products are perceived to be more creative than those of outgroups independently of other factors with which group membership is typically correlated in the world at large (e.g., quality). The studies also indicate that this pattern is not simply a manifestation of generic ingroup bias since judgments of creativity diverge from those of both likeability (Experiment 1) and beauty (Experiment 2). The theoretical and practical significance of these findings is discussed with particular reference to innovation resistance and the “not invented here” syndrome.This research was supported by a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council (RES-062-23-0135)

When group members admit to being conformist: the role of relative intragroup status in conformity self-reports

Authors' draft; final version published in Personality and Social Psychology BulletinFive studies examined the hypothesis that people will strategically portray the self as being more group influenced the more junior they feel within the group. Among social psychologists (Study 1), ratings of self-conformity by group members were greater when the status of the participant was low than when it was high. These effects were replicated in Studies 2, 3, and 4 in which relative intragroup status was manipulated. In Study 3, the authors found junior group members described themselves as more conformist than senior members when they were addressing an ingroup audience, but when they were addressing an outgroup audience the effect disappeared. Furthermore, junior members (but not senior members) rated themselves as more conformist when they were led to believe their responses were public than when responses were private (Study 5). The discussion focuses on the strategic processes underlying low-status group members’ self-reports of group influence and the functional role of conformity in groups

Innovators’ Acts of Framing and Audiences’ Structural Characteristics in Novelty Recognition

We integrate a rhetorical with an audience-mediated perspective on novelty recognition to advance a conceptual framework where recognition of novel ideas is understood as the result of the interplay between an innovator’s acts of framing and audiences’ structural characteristics. Building on storytelling and narrative research, we argue that innovators can overcome the liability of newness of their ideas by framing them so as to shape the evaluation of relevant audiences (e.g., peers, critics, investors or users). We also suggest that non-agentic mechanisms can render a field more or less permeable to the reception of novel ideas. Specifically, we propose that two audience-level characteristics affect novelty evaluation: audience heterogeneity and whether an audience is internal or external to cultural producers’ (including innovators’) professional community. Studying innovators’ acts of framing and marrying them with audience-level characteristics affords a window into a more nuanced understanding of how novel ideas are recognized and eventually accepted in cultural fields, thus offering several contributions to research on innovation and entrepreneurship and, more generally, social evaluation