What Makes an Idea Risky? The Relations between Perceptions of Idea Novelty,Usefulness, and Risk

Individuals and organizations frequently tout creative ideas as a desirable goal, and yet, creative ideas are frequently rejected. Creativity researchers have often suggested that creative ideas are rejected because they are perceived as riskier due to their inherent novelty or originality. Although this assumption is prevalent, we are unaware of any empirical research directly examining the relations between perceptions of novelty and risk. We provide an empirical test of this assumption in two studies in which participants rate the novelty, usefulness, and riskiness of ideas. Across both studies, we find consistent support for the idea that usefulness, rather than novelty, has the strongest relation with risk perceptions. We also find some evidence that novelty and usefulness interact to predict perceptions of risk. Additionally, in Study 2, we find that usefulness has the strongest relation with willingness to invest and buy a product. The findings of this study suggest that the bias against creativity may be driven by the perceived usefulness of an idea, rather than its novelty, such that ideas with lower usefulness are perceived to be riskier.     

Twenty years later,the cognitive portrait of openness to reconciliation in Rwanda

With this work, we intended to draw a cognitive portrait of openness to reconciliation. No study had yet examined the potential contribution of high-level cognitive functioning, in addition to psychological health, to explaining attitudes towards reconciliation in societies exposed to major trauma such as post-genocide Rwanda. We measured the contribution of general cognitive capacity, analytical thinking, and subjective judgements. Our results show that higher cognitive capacity is not associated with greater openness to reconciliation. On the other hand, proneness to think analytically about the genocide predicts more favorable attitudes towards reconciliation. The latter effect is associated with more tempered judgements about retrospective facts (e.g., number of genocide perpetrators) and prospective events (e.g., risk of genocide reoccurrence). This work establishes the importance of cognitive functioning in the aftermath of political violence: A better understanding of the influence of information processing on openness to reconciliation may help improve reconciliation policies and contribute to reducing risks of conflict reoccurrence.     

A New Border Zone in Science. Collaboration and Tensions between Modelling Ecologists and Field Naturalists

Modelling ecologists have entered ecology labs. They need large quantities of data to improve their models and are eager to collaborate with field naturalists. This modifies existing relationships between these two groups of natural scientists who have different ways of knowing. We observed how a new border zone was being opened up between modelling ecologists and field naturalists working in a National Botanical Conservatory in France. After an arduous start, due to the initial reluctance of the field naturalists, the modelling ecologists and the field naturalists performed several activities together: they transformed existing data, produced new data, interpreted all these data, articulated research questions and hypotheses. They also created a hybrid database, mixing data from different sources, and they co-authored papers. This clearly changed the professional status of the field naturalists, who felt they were finally treated as genuine research partners. Yet, the modelling ecologists and the field naturalists remained as two distinct groups, with their specific practices, aims, skills and identities. Although collaboration was considered a clear success from both sides, there were some lingering tensions. The field naturalists were still somewhat wary of being downgraded to the status of mere data providers. They were therefore determined to see to it that their work and way of knowing would receive due recognition in the long run.     

Liking for happy- and sad-sounding music: Effects of exposure

We examined liking for happy- and sad-sounding music as a function of exposure, which varied both in quantity (number of exposures) and in quality (focused or incidental listening). Liking ratings were higher for happy than for sad music after focused listening, but similar after incidental listening. In the incidental condition, liking ratings increased linearly as a function of exposure. In the focused condition, liking ratings were an inverted U-shaped function of exposure, with initial increases in liking (after 2 exposures) followed by decreases (after 8 or 32 exposures). The results documented that: (1) sad music is liked as much as happy music in some instances; (2) frequency of exposure causes both familiarity (positive) and over-familiarity (negative) effects; and (3) effects of exposure on liking differ for focused and incidental listening.