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Perceived Interpersonal Dimensions and Its Effect on Rating Bias: How Neuroticism as a Trait Matters in Rating Creative Works

The Journal of Creative Behavior

Published online on

Abstract

Understanding any inter‐ and intra‐personal dynamic that affects bias in the judgment of creative output is among numerous areas of focus for researchers in Psychology (or subset field). Notably, as a result of changes in interpersonal dynamics, conditions of subjective construal can induce bias either leniently or severely without any due awareness by the evaluator. Based on 153 Cantonese‐English bilinguals, the present study explored two potentially relevant conditions in each of two separate experiments. The first condition (N = 90) examined whether the perceived dominance of the creator differentially affected individuals high in neuroticism in rating involving creativity performance. A generic and robust measure of creativity performance was operationalized and transformed to a score representing the extent the bias was embedded in the rating. In the second condition (N = 63), the perceived friendliness of the evaluation target was manipulated and neuroticism was also assessed. The results indicated raters low in neuroticism exhibited lenient rating bias irrespective of the perceived friendliness or dominance of the rating target. Raters high in neuroticism reported severe rating bias when their targets were perceived as non‐dominant. The study demonstrates the application of the meta‐theoretical framework of the cognitive‐affective personality system. The discussion also emphasizes how the results contribute to development in creativity research—namely the perception and evaluation of creativity. Practical implications of using the findings in managing public expectations from art works to human resource management are posited.