社会与工程心理学研究室知识库

企业组织一直以来都追求员工的高创造力，以期在激烈的市场竞争中获取优势。然而，在创造力广受推崇的时候，创造力的阴暗面也开始逐渐显现。其中不道德行为作为创造力的一个重要的阴暗面在最近几年得到了广泛的关注。创造力有多种研究取向，主要包括特质研究取向、过程研究取向和绩效研究取向。现有关于创造力与不道德行为的研究主要是从特质或绩效的视角来考察创造力与不道德行为的关系。这些研究认为具有创造力特质的个体具有更强的道德推脱能力或规则打破倾向，从而导致不道德行为；或者由于高创造力绩效，使得个体产生心理权力感，从而导致不道德行为。然而，基于特质和绩效视角的创造力与不道德行为的解释机制可能不适用于解释过程论视角下的创造力是否具有阴暗面。创造过程投入并不是一种特质倾向，它不会带来个体的道德推脱和规则打破倾向；此外，创造过程投入也并非稀有，任何个体都可以投入到创造活动中，因此它可能也不会带来心理权力感。为探索创造过程投入与不道德行为之间的关系，本研究采用自我损耗理论解释创造过程投入如何影响不道德行为，从而为探索创造力与不道德行为之间的关系提供新思路。本研究提出，创造过程投入会导致自我损耗，而自我损耗又会导致不道德行为，自我损耗中介创造过程投入与不道德行为之间的关系；同时创新氛围会调节这一中介效应。

为验证这一理论模型，本研究设计了三项子研究。研究1 采用实验室观察研究，在不操纵任何变量的情况下，初步考察创造过程投入是否会导致自我损耗以及不道德行为。研究1 招募了共计81 名大学生被试。结果发现，创造过程投入与自我损耗正相关，而自我损耗与不道德行为正相关，自我损耗中介创造过程投入与不道德行为之间的关系。研究2 采用实验室实验设计，通过两项实验研究建立因果链推论，验证创造过程投入导致自我损耗，而自我损耗又会导致不道德行为这一因果链条。其中，研究2a 招募了67 名大学生被试，研究2b 招募了65 名大学生被试。结果显示，创造过程投入会导致自我损耗，自我损耗又会导致不道德行为，自我损耗中介创造过程投入与不道德行为之间的因果关系。研究3 进行现场研究，采用日记法的方式进一步在工作场所验证创造过程投入 、 自我损耗 、员工不道德行为 三者之间的关系，并且考察理论模型的边界条件 。 共计 138名企业员工被试参与了为期 10天的日记法调查。 结果进一步验证了研究 1和研究 2的结果，即创造过程投入与自我损耗正相关，而自我损耗与不道德行为正相关，自我损耗中介创造过程投入与不道德行为之 间的关系；同时， 创新氛围 可以负向调节这一中介关系。

研究从过程的视角探索创造力与不道德行为的关系，能为我们更加全面地理解创造力的阴暗面提供帮助。同时，本研究从自我损耗的视角解释创造力的阴暗面，拓展了解释创造力与不道德行为之间关系的理论机制，加深了我们对于创造力的认识。最后，本研究也有助于我们探讨采用何种手段使得“创造力”和“道德”二者鱼和熊掌可以兼得。

To win advantages in the fierce market, organizations search for all kinds of methods to promote employees’ creativity. However, while creativity is widely respected, the dark side of creativity begins to receive interests of scholars. As one of the most important dark side of creativity, unethical behavior has received great concerns in recent years. Creativity has many contents, which contains creativity trait, creativity performance, and creative process. Extant studies about the relationship between creativity and unethical behavior mainly refer to creativity trait or creativity performance. Previous studies found that creativity trait was positively related to moral disengagement or rule-breaking mindset, while moral disengagement or rule-breaking mindset would lead to unethical behavior. Other studies found that creativity performance would lead to psychological entitlement, which could also bring about unethical behavior. However, the theories that explain the relationship between creativity trait/performance and unethical behavior may not be compatible in interpreting whether creative process has dark side. Creative process engagement is not an aptitude; thus, it cannot bring about moral disengagement or rule-breaking mindset. What is more, creative process engagement is not a rare thing, because everyone can engage in creative activities. Thus, creative process engagement will not bring about psychological entitlement. In this study, we try to explore the relationship between creative process engagement and unethical behavior. At the same time, we also used the ego depletion theory to interpret why creative process engagement could lead to unethical behavior. By doing so, we may have provided new insights for exploring the relationship between creativity and unethical behavior. Specifically, we argued that creative process engagement would lead to ego depletion, while ego depletion would lead to unethical behavior; ego depletion mediated the relationship between creative process engagement and unethical behavior. At the same time, we also argued that innovation climate would moderate this mediation model.

To test our theoretical model, we designed three studies. Study 1 is an observational study in the laboratory. That is to say, the independent variable is not manipulated but measured in this study. Study 1 recruited 81 participants and observed the relationship among creative process engagement, ego depletion, and unethical behavior. The results revealed that creative process engagement was positively related to ego depletion, ego depletion was positively related to unethical behavior, and ego depletion mediated the relationship between creative process engagement and unethical behavior. Study 2 adopted the experimental design, and it contained two sub-studies. Study 2a has 67 participants, and study 2b has 65 participants. By using two experiments, this study tried to establish the experimental causal chain. In the other words, this study tried to demonstrate the causal relationship among creative process engagement, ego depletion, and unethical behavior. The results revealed that creative process engagement would lead to ego depletion, ego depletion would lead to unethical behavior, and ego depletion mediated the causal relationship between creative process engagement and unethical behavior. Study 3 has 138 participants, and it is a daily-diary study to test the relationship among creative process engagement, ego depletion and unethical behavior. Study 3 also tried to explore the moderating effect of innovation climate on the relationship between creative process engagement and ego depletion. As a result, study 3 cross-validated the theoretical model of study 1 and study 2 in the workplace. In addition, study 3 found that innovation climate could negatively moderate the mediation model.

This study explores the relationship between creativity and unethical behavior from the process perspective, which can help us to comprehensively understand the dark side of creativity. At the same time, by using the ego depletion theory to interpret the dark side of creativity, this study could enhance our understanding of creativity. At last, this study also provides insights of how to prevent unethical behavior of individuals who engage in creative process.