The Need to be Different Predicts Divergent Production: Toward a Social Learning Model of Originality

According to social learning theory, innovation motivation is partly composed of the subjective value set upon the opportunity to engage in different behaviors. An inventory measuring this explicit need to be different (vDiffer) has not previously been evaluated for its ability to predict divergent production of ideas. In this study, the vDiffer scale was administered together with three divergent production (originality) measures: a word-association test, a new uses test, and a test requiring examinees to name members of categories. Responses were scored for unusualness in the sample. The need to be different predicted unusual category exemplars (r = .31), word associations (r = .30), and uses for common objects (r = .31). Although general knowledge or verbal fluency also predicted some originality scores, innovation motivation tests accounted for significant variance over and above that attributable to these ability measures.