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Men in Real World are more Creative than Women

 

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A new study says that the work and achievements of men tend to be evaluated as more creative than similar work and achievements produced by women. The study was published in the journal Psychological Science.

In an online study, the researchers randomly assigned 80 participants to read a passage describing a type of creativity: the ability to "think outside the box" (also known as divergent thinking) or the ability to "connect the dots" (convergent thinking). After reading the passage, the participants rated how central 16 different personality traits are to creativity.

As expected, participants associated creativity more with stereotypically masculine traits, including decisiveness, competitiveness, risk-taking, ambition, and daring, than with stereotypically feminine traits like cooperation, understanding, and support to others, and this tendency was particularly pronounced when participants considered creativity as "thinking outside the box."

To investigate the link between gender and creativity in the real world, the researchers also examined performance evaluations for senior-level executives enrolled in an MBA program.  The participants, 100 men and 34 women, were evaluated on their innovative thinking by both their direct reports and supervisors.

In a final study, the researchers asked 125 participants to read a passage about either a male or a female manager whose strategic plan was described as more or less risky (a stereotypical masculine trait).  As predicted, the male manager was perceived as more creative when his behavior was described as risky than when it was not, but there was no such effect for the female manager.

The research suggests that when people think about "creative thinkers" they tend to think of characteristics typically ascribed to men but not women, including qualities like risk-taking, adventurousness, and self-reliance.


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