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17 - The Dark Side of Creativity and How to Combat It

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
Robert J. Sternberg
Edited by
David H. Cropley ,
Arthur J. Cropley ,
James C. Kaufman  and
Mark A. Runco
Robert J. Sternberg
Affiliation:
Tufts University
David H. Cropley
Affiliation:
University of South Australia
Arthur J. Cropley
Affiliation:
University of Hamburg
James C. Kaufman
Affiliation:
California State University at San Bernardino
Mark A. Runco
Affiliation:
University of Georgia
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Summary

CREATIVITY AND EVIL

Creativity involves producing ideas or products that are novel and high in quality or impact (Sternberg & Lubart, 1995; see also essays in Sternberg, 1999). On the face of it, many of the vexing problems that exist in the literature on creativity, such as how to recognize it or how to measure it, can be and have been addressed, if not totally resolved. There are other problems, however, that are even more vexing and that defy easy resolution. Was Joseph Mengele creative in devising novel medical procedures for torturing patients? What about Adolph Hitler and his cronies in devising novel means of mass extermination or Joseph Stalin in devising an elaborate series of prison camps into which were placed real and imagined political enemies? If the novelty criterion were the only one for deciding on levels of creativity, all these madmen would be called creative. But we distinguish between originality, which involves only novelty, and creativity, which involves quality or impact as well as novelty. Much of the time, quality and impact go hand in hand, but in the cases just cited, it is not obvious that they do. Mengele, Hitler, and Stalin all had great impact with their ideas, but the ideas were not good ones.

Or were they? Revisionist history in Russia is glorifying the contribution of Stalin to the history of the country, stating that however harsh his measures, they were necessary given the times.

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The Dark Side of Creativity , pp. 316 - 328
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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