Mental set and creative thought in social conflict: threat rigidity versus motivated focus

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Carsten K W De Dreu, Bernard A Nijstad

Abstract

According to the traditional threat-rigidity reasoning, people in social conflict will be less flexible, less creative, more narrow-minded, and more rigid in their thinking when they adopt a conflict rather than a cooperation mental set. The authors propose and test an alternative, motivated focus account that better fits existing evidence. The authors report experimental results inconsistent with a threat-rigidity account, but supporting the idea that people focus their cognitive resources on conflict-related material more when in a conflict rather than a cooperation mental set: Disputants with a conflict (cooperation) set have broader (smaller) and more (less) inclusive cognitive categories when the domain of thought is (un)related to conflict (Experiment 1a-1b). Furthermore, they generate more, and more original competition tactics (Experiments 2-4), especially when they have low rather than high need for cognitive closure. Implications for conflict theory, for motivated information processing, and creativity research are discussed.

Citations

Jan 30, 2016·Journal of Advanced Nursing·Joan AlmostChristine D'Souza
Aug 13, 2015·Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews. Cognitive Science·Carsten K W De DreuNathalie C Boot
Mar 20, 2012·Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin·Stephanie LichtenfeldReinhard Pekrun
Mar 27, 2015·Evolutionary Psychology : an International Journal of Evolutionary Approaches to Psychology and Behavior·Bin-Bin Chen, Lei Chang
Jul 19, 2013·Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin·Daniel J SligteCarsten K W De Dreu
Sep 22, 2019·Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin·Li Huang
Oct 30, 2019·The British Journal of Educational Psychology·Boris ForthmannHeinz Holling
Jun 22, 2018·Frontiers in Psychology·Valentin AdeRoman Trötschel
Apr 2, 2019·Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin·Matthijs BaasCarsten K W De Dreu
Jul 20, 2021·Frontiers in Psychology·Iana Bashmakova, Olga Shcherbakova
Dec 30, 2021·Personality and Social Psychology Review : an Official Journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc·Julia A Minson, Frances S Chen

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