🏷️ Categorías: Creativity, Decision making and biases.
It’s ironic.
We live in a culture that idolizes innovation.
Companies demand it, leaders promise it, schools support it, and social media rewards it. "Think outside the box," they say, over and over again. But when someone truly dares to show something different—something that breaks with the norm…
We reject it, question it from afar, or ignore it instantly.
If you're a creative person, one of those with notebooks full of ideas that never saw the light of day, today you'll understand why the world seems to crave creativity, yet acts as if it's afraid of it.
Three scientists from Cornell University discovered the reason behind this paradox…
1. The universal desire for creativity
Creativity is one of those concepts with good reputation.
It’s associated with intelligence, wisdom, and moral goodness (Niu & Sternberg, 2006; Sternberg, 1985). A superpower that, in theory, everyone wants to have. Schools include it in their educational missions. Companies list it as a “core value.”
Universities promote it as the key to scientific progress.
The problem is there's a big gap between what we say and what we do.
Because while everyone praises creativity with words, very few actually accept it in practice.
“Organizations, scientific institutions, and decision-makers routinely reject creative ideas—even as they claim creativity is an important goal.”
— Barry M. Staw, Why No One Really Wants Creativity.
Sound familiar? It does to me.
2. The bias against creativity
Here’s where things get interesting.
A group of researchers at Cornell University (Mueller, Melwani, and Goncalo) proposed something novel: The problem isn’t that we don’t want creativity.
The problem is that we have a bias against it.
“Just as people have deep-seated prejudices against certain ages, races, or genders… they may also hold deeply rooted negative views about creativity that are not openly acknowledged.”
— Mueller, Melwani, and Goncalo, The Bias Against Creativity.
The issue lies in the fact that ideas need two things: to be novel and useful.
But here’s the catch: people (especially organizations) struggle to see both qualities as compatible. New ideas raise doubts—about their usefulness, their potential errors, or whether they can be reliably reproduced. And as we know all too well, the human brain hates uncertainty.
We want new ideas to escape old problems.
But we're afraid to take risks, so we stay stuck with the same problems.
3. The two experiments
To test their theory, the scientists conducted two fascinating experiments.
3.1. The power of uncertainty
They split participants into two groups.
One group was placed under uncertainty: they could win extra money, but the amount depended on chance.
The other group—the control group—was not given any uncertain reward; there was no unpredictability involved.
Then, both groups were tested on their perception of creativity in various situations.
Results:
Both groups claimed to value creativity equally.
However, the uncertainty group showed a negative implicit bias toward creativity. They associated creativity with negative concepts.
The group without uncertainty, on the other hand, had a positive association.
Conclusion: Uncertainty reveals our hidden rejection of creative ideas.
3.2. The case of the futuristic shoes
The second experiment was even more striking.
140 people took an “openness to experience” test. The 70 highest scorers formed the high tolerance group; the 70 lowest, the low tolerance group. Then, all participants were shown a real innovative idea: running shoes equipped with nanotechnology that regulated airflow to prevent blisters.
The idea met both criteria for creativity: novel and practical.
What happened?
Participants with low tolerance for uncertainty showed a strong negative bias. They rated the shoes as less creative.
Participants with high tolerance had a much lower bias. They recognized the creativity and saw great potential.
The bias is brutal: New ideas trigger a certain rejection. And for some, the rejection is so strong it blinds them to the idea’s potential.
Irony: the more you need creativity, the less you want it
This is the most paradoxical part.
Moments of crisis, uncertainty, and change—the moments when creativity is needed the most—are exactly when we're least prepared to value or adopt it. And that’s profoundly dangerous, because it threatens the very foundation of progress.
This bias makes us sabotage ourselves without even realizing it.
It’s useless to say creativity is wonderful if you refuse to accept it.
It’s useless to put “innovation” in your company’s mission if you expect all ideas to fit the same old molds.
It’s useless to teach “critical thinking” if you punish those who question.
Think about it:
How many brilliant ideas have been discarded because they weren’t understood right away?
How many creatives gave up because someone said, “That’s not realistic”?
How many times have you abandoned an idea of yours, afraid it might fail?
Maybe it’s not creativity that we lack.
Maybe we just lack the mental, emotional, and cultural space to embrace it.
If you’re a creative person, now you know: rejection of your ideas isn’t always rational. Sometimes it’s just a reflex—fear of the unknown. The good news: once you understand the bias, you can anticipate it and shape your ideas so they’re better received by others.
Next time an idea makes you uncomfortable, don’t dismiss it. Ask yourself:
“Am I rejecting it because it’s bad… or because it’s new?”
That’s the first step to break the cycle.
And start living, creating, and deciding beyond our fears.
✍️ Your turn: How will you respond the next time someone brings you an idea you don’t immediately understand? And how will you present your own ideas so they’re met with less uncertainty?
💭 Quote of the day: “Uncertainty stimulates the generation of creative ideas, but also makes people less able to recognize creativity—perhaps when they need it most.” — Mueller, Melwani, and Goncalo, The Bias Against Creativity
See you in the next letter! 👋
References 📚
Mueller, J. S., Melwani, S., & Goncalo, J. A. (2011). The bias against creativity. Psychological Science, 23(1), 13-17. URL
Niu, W., & Sternberg, R. J. (2006). The philosophical roots of Western and Eastern conceptions of creativity. Journal Of Theoretical And Philosophical Psychology, 26(1-2), 18-38. URL
Staw, B. M. (1995). Why no one really wants creativity. En SAGE Publications, Inc. eBooks (pp. 161-166). URL
Sternberg, R. J. (1985). Implicit theories of intelligence, creativity, and wisdom. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49(3), 607–627. URL
I wonder whether what we often reject isn’t creativity itself, but unmanaged uncertainty. Creativity doesn’t have to be chaotic — sometimes it’s simply a different angle on what already exists.
When people present a new idea to me that they have genuine excitement over, I do my best to encourage them by asking what’s keeping them from bringing it to life? It’s a question that I feel inspires more creativity and accountability all at once without offering judgement or a disingenuous energy.