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Being Sarcastic Boosts Workplace Creativity
Sarcasm, used in the right way, can spark creative thinking in yourself and even in others.
Nearly everyone knows the sting of sarcasm. In its cruelest, schoolyard form (which is how most of us first encounter it), sarcasm often has a way of getting under our skin that more direct forms of mockery don’t. Little wonder then that the use of sarcasm is officially frowned upon in the workplace, despite being a ubiquitous feature of informal office banter.
But what if the uniquely corrosive, conflict-inducing effects of sarcasm could be adapted and harnessed for constructive purposes? When my co-authors Francesca Gino (Harvard University) and Adam D. Galinsky (Columbia University) and I put it to the test, we found that not only did sarcasm cause its users to behave more creatively in subsequent tasks, but those on the receiving end also reaped creative benefits. In other words, the sting of sarcasm can potentially serve as a catalyst for innovative thinking.
Yeah, right, like you could think outside the box…
In our initial experiments for the paper “The highest form of intelligence: Sarcasm increases creativity for both expressers and recipients”, we exposed one randomly selected group of participants to either sincere or sarcastic remarks, and had another group express such remarks as a prelude to taking a creativity test. Those in the sarcasm conditions performed significantly better on the test than those in the sincerity condition or the control conditions. The question is of course, why? We argue it is because constructing and interpreting sarcasm requires abstract thinking, one of the most critical antecedents of creativity.
Read more at http://knowledge.insead.edu/leadership-organisations/being-sarcastic-boosts-workplace-creativity-4255#og6lCl0C8ylmOPlI.99
Being Sarcastic Boosts Workplace Creativity
Sarcasm, used in the right way, can spark creative thinking in yourself and even in others.
Nearly everyone knows the sting of sarcasm. In its cruelest, schoolyard form (which is how most of us first encounter it), sarcasm often has a way of getting under our skin that more direct forms of mockery don’t. Little wonder then that the use of sarcasm is officially frowned upon in the workplace, despite being a ubiquitous feature of informal office banter.
But what if the uniquely corrosive, conflict-inducing effects of sarcasm could be adapted and harnessed for constructive purposes? When my co-authors Francesca Gino (Harvard University) and Adam D. Galinsky (Columbia University) and I put it to the test, we found that not only did sarcasm cause its users to behave more creatively in subsequent tasks, but those on the receiving end also reaped creative benefits. In other words, the sting of sarcasm can potentially serve as a catalyst for innovative thinking.
Yeah, right, like you could think outside the box…
In our initial experiments for the paper “The highest form of intelligence: Sarcasm increases creativity for both expressers and recipients”, we exposed one randomly selected group of participants to either sincere or sarcastic remarks, and had another group express such remarks as a prelude to taking a creativity test. Those in the sarcasm conditions performed significantly better on the test than those in the sincerity condition or the control conditions. The question is of course, why? We argue it is because constructing and interpreting sarcasm requires abstract thinking, one of the most critical antecedents of creativity.
Read more at http://knowledge.insead.edu/leadership-organisations/being-sarcastic-boosts-workplace-creativity-4255#og6lCl0C8ylmOPlI.99
