The effects of different types of social exclusion on creative thinking: The role of self-construal

Given inconsistent discoveries about the effects of social exclusion on creativity, this study divided social exclusion into different types – social rejection and social ignoration, and compared respective effects on two creative thinking forms – divergent thinking (explored through an imaging impossible events task and an Alternate Uses Task) and convergent thinking (by means of the Remote Associates Test). The results show that a “being ignored” experience significantly promotes the convergent thinking and fluency in divergent thinking; while a “being rejected” experience only contributes to the fluency in a divergent thinking task. Also, for different individuals with different types of self-construal, the effects of being rejected and being ignored on creative thinking are different. Specifically, being ignored, compared to being rejected, significantly promoted the Remote Associates Test (RAT) scores of individuals with independent self-construal. The effects of being ignored or being rejected on creative thinking (convergent thinking and divergent thinking) for individuals with interdependent self-construal are not significant. Our results suggest that individuals with independent self-construal are more vulnerable to social exclusion and benefit more from the ignored experience than the rejected experience; and individuals with interdependent self-construal seem not to be affected by social rejection or social ignoration.