Shifting between modes of thought: a domain-general creative thinking skill?

The darker shades of creativity have recently attracted great interest because negative and malevolent creativity are found in multiple domains. It is easier to conceive of creative acts that meet negative goals as uncreative, primarily because of their immor-al and unethical nature. However, a complete understanding of the creativity construct may be obtained by assessing it within a valenced framework, wherein each compo-nent of creativity is positive or negative. In this qualitative account of malevolent creativity, we review manifestations of such creativities in the contexts of art, science, and technology. That is, original and subjectively useful actions taken by actors in each of these domains, which meet negative goals, with the deliberate intent to harm another individual or society at large. First, a brief review of literature in the areas of dark, negative, and malevolent creativity is presented. Second, qualitative accounts of malevolent creativity in art (forgery), science (academic dishonesty), and technology (cybercrime) are analyzed through D. H. Cropleys (2010) framework integrating valence and Rhodes (1961) four Ps model of creativity. Each domain is first exam-ined independently; subsequently, attempts are made to identify commonalities under-lying malevolent creative behaviours across domains. Suggestions for future research in this emerging subfield of creativity are provided.