Depressive Symptoms are Positively Linked to Malevolent Creativity: A Novel Perspective on the Maladaptive Nature of Revenge Ideation

Abstract

Depressed mood has attracted little attention in creativity research. By comparison, psychotherapeutic studies have repeatedly associated depressive symptomatology with increased revenge ideation. Combining creativity and retaliatory ideation, the present study examined whether self-reported subclinical depressive symptoms are linked to malevolent creativity – creativity used for the purpose of damaging others – in a psychometric test. In a sample of n = 259 participants, overall depressive symptoms were positively associated with malevolent creativity. Sensitivity analyses confirmed this link for motivational and interactional symptoms, but not cognitive symptoms of depression. As a gender-specific finding, malevolent creativity was positively linked to emotional symptoms of depression in women, but not men. Our findings hint at the possibility that mood impairments through depressive symptoms may facilitate malevolent creative ideation through increased impulsivity, reduced self-regulation, and protracted anger rumination. Following recommendations regarding more focused investigations into the vast research complex of psychopathology and creativity, this study emphasizes negative mood as a risk factor for the occurrence of harmful creative ideation, and thus, presents a novel perspective on the intricate link between internalizing and externalizing symptomatology.