Scientists at Harvard and Duke claim to have found a connection between creativity and cheating. According to a New York Times piece (“Creative Cheating” by Heather Havrilesky, www.nytimes.com), researchers determined that “creative thinkers are more likely to take unethical shortcuts for gain, possibly because their talents make them better at rationalizing bad behavior.” Dr. Francesca Gino concludes simply that “creativity makes people more morally flexible.” What do you think?
1) Do you agree that creative people are generally more “morally flexible” than those who are less creative?
2) Do you believe the opposite to necessarily be true? For example, are rigid, left-brain thinkers necessarily ethical? Why or why not?
3) The article also hypothesizes that creative people perhaps believe they can “win us back with a creative apology, a creative excuse or a creative defense in court.” Have you ever observed this to be the case? If so, how did it turn out?
I do not think that creative people are necessarily more “morally flexible” compared to non-creative people, but that among “morally flexible” people, those who are creative would be more likely to cheat than to act in other immoral ways. For example, a creative person who is disgruntled with their employer may fudge time punches, or find some way to trick the system in their favor, whereas a disgruntled non-creative person may just steal supplies everyday from work. I think creative people probably are more likely to cheat than they are to outright steal, but I dont think they are more likely to act unethically in general compared to a non-creative person. I think there are just immoral people in any given subset of people.