Sympathy fuels creativity: The beneficial effects of sympathy on originality

• Main Authors: YANG, Hwajin, YANG, Sujin
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2016
• Subjects: Creativity; Flexibility; Fluency; Induced sympathy; Originality; Trait empathy; Cognitive Psychology; Personality and Social Contexts
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2056; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/3313/viewcontent/SympathyFuelsCreativity_2016_afv.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Sympathy is usually evoked by heightened awareness of and concern for others' suffering by perceiving or reacting to their distress or need. Sympathetic contexts appear to spur creative solutions, because those who react sympathetically to others' suffering tend to seek novel, desirable, a...