Creative idea evaluation affects trust in decision-makers: the interpersonal consequences of creative idea recognition (failure)

Abstract

Despite organizations espousing a desire for creative ideas, decision-makers often do not recognize creative ideas and reject them. We ask what the consequences of creative idea recognition failure are for the relationship between the idea generator (as well as others who witness the failure) and the decision-maker. We theorize and show in two experiments that idea generators and third-party observers trust a decision-maker less when the decision-maker fails to recognize a creative idea, because they view the decision-maker as less competent. This effect holds when we manipulate the idea’s creativity (Study 1), use participants’ subjective perceptions of the idea’s creativity (Studies 1 and 2), and when using creativity ratings by external raters (Study 2). Additionally, we also demonstrate that idea generators and third-party observers trust a decision-maker more when the decision-maker recognizes a creative idea, because they view the decision-maker as more competent. This effect only consistently emerges when using participants’ subjective creativity perceptions. We also find perceived warmth as a parallel mediator, but only when using participants’ subjective creativity perceptions. Finally, we demonstrate that these effects are not solely due to accuracy or surprise. We discuss the theoretical implications of these findings and provide directions for future research.