Creativity for the Group: Distinctive Feminists Engage in Divergent Thinking When Acting on Behalf of Women

For feminists, a core goal is to promote the interests of women as a group. Across three studies, we examined whether the pursuit of such goals can lead feminists to use more divergent thinking styles. We measured identification with feminists, identification with women, and manipulated the extent t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social psychological & personality science 2021-05, Vol.12 (4), p.461-470
Main Authors: van Breen, J. A., Gocłowska, M. A., de Lemus, S., Baas, M., Kelleci, B., Spears, R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cognitive style
Creativity
Divergent thinking
Feminism
Shamans
Women
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Summary:For feminists, a core goal is to promote the interests of women as a group. Across three studies, we examined whether the pursuit of such goals can lead feminists to use more divergent thinking styles. We measured identification with feminists, identification with women, and manipulated the extent to which a divergent thinking task was congruent with the goal of promoting women’s interests. Results showed that—when given the opportunity to promote the interests of women—feminist identification was associated with greater divergent thinking. This effect was observed only in feminists who identified less strongly with women as a group (“distinctive feminists”). We conclude that distinctive feminists draw on divergent thinking to promote the interests of women as a group.
ISSN:1948-5506
1948-5514
DOI:10.1177/1948550620926414