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. 2022 Sep 26;10(4):75.
doi: 10.3390/jintelligence10040075.

The Effects of the Creator's Situation on Creativity Evaluation: The Rater's Cognitive Empathy and Affective Empathy Matter in Rating Creative Works

Yilai Pei  1 , Jiantao Han  2 , Jingwen Zhao  3 , Mengrong Liu  4 , Weiguo Pang  1
Affiliations

The Effects of the Creator's Situation on Creativity Evaluation: The Rater's Cognitive Empathy and Affective Empathy Matter in Rating Creative Works

Yilai Pei et al. J Intell. .

Abstract

Successful intelligence theory suggests that creativity is necessary for personal achievement outside of intelligence. Unlike intelligence, creativity can develop in a supportive environment. People should consider the situation of disadvantaged groups, which are characterized by low personal achievement and a bad growth environment in creativity evaluation from a caring perspective. This study focuses on the effect of the creator's situation on creative evaluation and the role of the rater's empathy (i.e., cognitive empathy and affective empathy) and sympathy in creative evaluation. Four pairs of creator's situations (by age, physical state, family situation, and economic state) were designed to represent people with disadvantages or advantages. A between-subject design was used with 590 undergraduate students randomly assigned to eight sub-conditions. The participants were asked to assess three products in eight situations. The rater's empathy and sympathy in creativity evaluation were explored in the overall disadvantage (N = 300) and advantage (N = 290) conditions. The results showed that the participants only provided significantly higher ratings to the creative product made by a child. Cognitive empathy only predicted a creative rating under disadvantaged conditions, and affective empathy negatively moderated this effect. Affective empathy only predicted a creative rating under advantage conditions, and cognitive empathy positively moderated this effect. Affective empathy only predicted a creative rating under advantage conditions, and cognitive empathy positively moderated this effect. The possible mechanisms of the effect and implications for the establishment of a supportive environment for creativity and creativity teaching practice were discussed.

Keywords: affective empathy; cognitive empathy; creative evaluation; sympathy.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The hypotheses between the creator’s situation, rater’s empathy and sympathy, and creative product evaluation.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The interaction effect of cognitive empathy and the creator’s situation on creative evaluation.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The interaction effect of affective empathy and the creator’s situation on creative evaluation.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The simple slope of cognitive empathy in different affective empathy levels for the disadvantaged condition.
Figure 5
Figure 5
The simple slope of affective empathy in different cognitive empathy levels for the advantaged condition.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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