Cui Yu-Xin, Zhou Xiang, Zu Chong, Zhai Hong-Kun, Bai Bo-Ren, Xu Yu-Mei, Li Duo
Department of Social Psychology, Nankai University, Tianjin, China.
Collaborative Innovation Center for China Economy, Tianjin, China.
Front Psychol. 2020 Dec 29;11:601027. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.601027. eCollection 2020.
With the outbreak of the COVID-19 crisis, the public keeps getting epidemic-related information on the media. News reports on the increasing number of fatalities have exposed individuals to death, which causes negative emotional experiences such as tension, anxiety, and fear. This study aimed to investigate whether creativity could serve as an anxiety-buffer when mortality is salient. Based on previous findings, the present study utilized type of creative task and personal search for meaning as moderators. In Study 1, a 2 (mortality salience: absent, present) × 2 (type of creative task: benevolent, malevolent) between-subject design was utilized, and 168 subjects were randomly assigned to four experimental conditions. In Study 2, 221 subjects were recruited. The experimental procedure was similar to Study 1, except that the priming paradigm of mortality was changed and search for meaning was included as an additional moderating variable. State anxiety was measured as the dependent variable in both studies. Results of Study 1 showed that, while the benevolent creative task could buffer anxiety in the mortality salience condition, the malevolent creative task did not have the same effect. Furthermore, there was a significant interaction between mortality salience, type of creative task, and search for meaning in life on anxiety. In Study 2, the buffering function of benevolent creativity was more intense for participants with a higher level of search for meaning. Together, these findings reveal the influence of different types of creative tasks on individual anxiety levels under death priming conditions and the moderating effect of search for meaning in this relationship. Further, they suggest the need to focus on the role of creativity in terror management.
随着新冠疫情危机的爆发，公众不断从媒体上获取与疫情相关的信息。关于死亡人数不断增加的新闻报道让人们直面死亡，这引发了紧张、焦虑和恐惧等负面情绪体验。本研究旨在调查当死亡凸显时，创造力是否可以作为一种焦虑缓冲因素。基于先前的研究结果，本研究将创造性任务的类型和个人对意义的探寻作为调节变量。在研究1中，采用了2（死亡凸显：不存在、存在）×2（创造性任务类型：良性、恶性）的组间设计，168名受试者被随机分配到四个实验条件中。在研究2中，招募了221名受试者。实验程序与研究1相似，只是改变了死亡启动范式，并将对意义的探寻作为一个额外的调节变量纳入。在两项研究中，均以状态焦虑作为因变量进行测量。研究1的结果表明，虽然良性创造性任务可以在死亡凸显条件下缓冲焦虑，但恶性创造性任务却没有同样的效果。此外，死亡凸显、创造性任务类型和对生活意义的探寻之间在焦虑方面存在显著的交互作用。在研究2中，对于意义探寻水平较高的参与者，良性创造力的缓冲作用更强。这些研究结果共同揭示了在死亡启动条件下不同类型的创造性任务对个体焦虑水平的影响，以及在这种关系中意义探寻的调节作用。此外，它们还表明有必要关注创造力在恐惧管理中的作用。
