Creative Thinking Does Not Promote Dishonesty

We assessed the relation of creativity and unethical behavior by manipulating the thinking style of participants (N = 450 adults) and measuring the impact of this manipulation on the prevalence of dishonest behavior. Participants performed one of three inducer tasks: the alternative uses task to promote divergent thinking, the remote associates task to promote convergent thinking, or a simple classification task for rule-based thinking. Before and after this manipulation, participants conducted the mind game as a straightforward measure of dishonesty. Dishonest behavior increased from before to after the intervention, but this increase occurred independently of the induced mindset. Exploratory analyses, moreover, did not support any relation of trait creativity and dishonesty. We conclude that the influence of creative thinking on unethical behavior seems to be more ambiguous than assumed in earlier research or might be restricted to specific populations or contexts