The Boston Globe: If you need help thinking outside the box, you could do worse than to talk to some white-collar criminals. That’s one implication of a new study on the link between dishonesty and creativity. In several experiments, participants who were dishonest in reporting their performance on a task More
Two renowned European psychological researchers, both of whom focus on cognitive neuroscience, have been awarded the world’s largest prize for brain research. APS Fellows Stanislas Dehaene and Trevor W. Robbins, along with Italian neurophysiologist Giacomo Rizzolatti, are receiving the Brain Prize of €1 million for “pioneering research on higher brain More
Motherboard: Plenty of the world’s best artists haven’t exactly been stellar people, morally speaking. We pay comedians, novelists, and screenwriters to make stuff up and in exchange, forgive them their transgressions. Turns out, there may be a connection: A new study out of Harvard University suggests that lying actually makes More
The Times: The expression “being creative with the truth” is normally seen as a polite way of calling someone a liar. But now psychologists say that being dishonest can actively increase creativity. The authors of the study, entitled “Evil Genius? How Dishonesty Can Lead to Greater Creativity” claim that their More
Pacific Standard: Want to be more creative? As we have noted, there are many ways to achieve that laudable goal, ranging from dimming the lights to sitting at a disorderly desk. Or you could just lie and cheat. After Harvard Business School researcher Francesa Gino reported in 2011 that that More
Among laypersons, psychologists are infamous for two things: their couches and the fact that they always observe people. In many of psychology’s neighboring disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, and primatology, the observation of subjects in their natural habitat is common practice and is held in high methodological regard. It is ironic More
