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Abstract
People often reject creative ideas, even when espousing creativity as a desired goal.
To explain this paradox, we propose that people can hold a bias against creativity
that is not necessarily overt and that is activated when people experience a motivation
to reduce uncertainty. In two experiments, we manipulated uncertainty using different
methods, including an uncertainty-reduction prime. The results of both experiments
demonstrated the existence of a negative bias against creativity (relative to practicality)
when participants experienced uncertainty. Furthermore, this bias against creativity
interfered with participants' ability to recognize a creative idea. These results
reveal a concealed barrier that creative actors may face as they attempt to gain acceptance
for their novel ideas.