Creative People Lie More Often

Businesses are always encouraging their employees to be more creative.  Frequently, they even hold seminars to help their employees "think outside the box."  While it is true that some of the best innovations come from people who are able to tap the creative areas of their minds, there may be a downside that employers might not appreciate.

According to an article in the May, 2015 issue of Reader's Digest Magazine, "Why We Bend the Rules," a researcher at Harvard named Francesca Gino, and one at Duke named Dan Ariely decided to see if they could determine if people who were more intelligent were more likely to be dishonest.

What they discovered was that being smarter didn't make you more likely to cheat; however, being creative did.

Why would being creative make you more likely to cheat?

Apparently, creative people are more likely to "retell" or "reframe" a story to make themselves look better, especially if they have done something wrong.

Just training someone to be more creative can make them more likely to cheat!!

When people are primed with words that encourage them to be creative, such as telling them to be flexible, novel or imaginative, they are also more likely to cheat more at games ... and perhaps in other ways.

So, before you decide to encourage your employees to be more creative, you may want to think about the potential consequences!

You are reading from the blog:  http://lies-and-liars.blogspot.com

Photo credit:  Photo of Laguna Beach sculpture taken by author, Deborah-Diane.  All rights reserved.