其他摘要 | Creativity and innovation are essential to the rapid development of individuals and organizations. From idea generation to transformation into innovation effectiveness, during which creativity recognition plays a vital role. To accurately recognize ideas or people with true innovation potential, evaluators refer to a variety of situational cues before making decision. Effort, as an important cue, will affect both the evaluation of creativity and product quality, as well as the evaluation of individual capabilities.
In view of this, “Effort Paradox” in creativity evaluation is proposed here: evaluators acknowledge that effort can obtain and enhance creative output, but creators who put a lot of effort into it are perceived by evaluators as not competent. In other words, effort has the opposite effect on creation assessment and creator assessment. At the same level of creativity, effort raises the assessment score of creativity but lowers the assessment score of creators.
Although occasionally daily observations and preliminary evidence suggest that “Effort Paradox” may exist, no research has been conducted to directly test its existence or to explore its mechanisms. Based on implicit theory, this study argues that the effort paradox exists because there are differences in the implicit associations triggered by effort cues on different targets: when evaluating ideas or products, the evaluator focuses on their quality and value, which links effort cues to value belief; but when evaluating creators, the evaluator focuses on their ability and potential, which links effort cues to ability belief. Based on an implicit framework, this study aims to investigate the existence of “Effort Paradox”, and to explore the mechanisms by which implicit beliefs about effort play a role.
In order to determine the influence pattern of effort on creativity evaluation, the first two studies aimed to explore the interactions between Effort and Target (creation and creator) on creativity evaluation. Study 1 (n = 126) was conducted through a 2 × 2 between-subjects experimental design, by manipulating effort levels and different targets. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the effort conditions and then completed an evaluation task on the creative product or creator. The results revealed a significant interaction effect between effort and target: effort level increased the evaluation of the creation but decreased the evaluation of the creator, showing a “paradox”. Study 2 (n = 156) separated the overlapping effect of effort manipulation on two targets. A two by two comparison of the three groups with different effort levels revealed that the effort paradox still exists. Thus, the effort paradox was cross validated in two studies.
Based on implicit theory, Study 3 and Study 4 aim to reveal the mechanisms underlying the “Effort Paradox”. Specifically, Study 3 (n = 230) explores how evaluators' intelligence beliefs influence their assessment on creator. The study used the Moderation of process design, and found a significant third order interaction effect of ability beliefs, effort levels, and target on evaluation process. Specifically, when evaluators held fixed beliefs (vs. growth beliefs), creators in the high effort condition had lower score. This confirms the mediating mechanism of ability beliefs in evaluating creators' negative processes.
Study 4 (n = 324) explored how evaluators' value beliefs affect their assessment on creative outputs. Study 4 used a 2×2×2 three-factor between-subjects experimental design by additionally manipulating two types of value beliefs. The results of the study found significant third-order interactions for value beliefs, effort levels, and targets. Specifically, when evaluators held a high value belief (vs. low value belief), creative products in the high-effort condition had higher scores. This confirms the mediating mechanism of value beliefs in the gaining benefits of creative products.
In summary, a new phenomenon called “Effort Paradox” in the social judgement was defined and verified in the current study. The contributions are listed as follows: proposing and verifying a new phenomenon of “effort paradox” in creativity evaluation, providing an implicit perspective of effort for creativity evaluation process, and establishing a link between two research streams of effort. Practically, this study has important implications for how creators can improve the success rate of their ideas selling and convince professional investors. |
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