Key Laboratory of Modern Teaching Technology (Ministry of Education), Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China.
Shenzhen Second Senior High School, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.
Behav Brain Res. 2023 Jan 5;436:114084. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2022.114084. Epub 2022 Aug 29.
Social comparisons usually occur in teams when members are tasked with generating creative ideas. However, it is unclear how these comparisons influence creative idea generation, which may be due to a lack of research on the interpretations of social comparison feedback. Self-construal is a psychological characteristic wherein individuals attempt to explain their cooperation and personal behaviours. Therefore, this study explored the influence of social comparison and self-construal on creative idea generation and the underlying neural mechanisms by recording electroencephalogram (EEG) activity. Individuals with independent and interdependent self-construal were randomly assigned to upward or downward comparison conditions and completed an alternative uses task. Results indicated that interdependent self-construal individuals had better originality and flexibility performance in the upward comparison condition compared to those in the downward comparison condition. The EEG results further revealed that, among interdependent self-construal individuals, the upward comparison condition elicited greater alpha synchronization in the bilateral frontal, right parietal, and right temporal regions compared to the downward comparison condition. Moreover, in the upward comparison condition, left frontal alpha synchronization mediated the effect of interdependent self-construal on creative idea generation. These findings support the notion of the joint effect of self-construal and social comparison on creative idea generation and suggest that interdependent self-construal individuals are better able to control irrelevant interfering information and form novel associations during an upward comparison situation compared to a downward comparison situation.
社会比较通常发生在团队成员需要生成创意想法的任务中。然而，这些比较如何影响创意想法的产生尚不清楚，这可能是由于缺乏对社会比较反馈解释的研究。自我建构是一种心理特征，个体试图用它来解释自己的合作和个人行为。因此，本研究通过记录脑电图（EEG）活动，探讨了社会比较和自我建构对创意想法产生的影响及其潜在的神经机制。具有独立和相互依存自我建构的个体被随机分配到向上或向下比较条件，并完成了替代用途任务。结果表明，与向下比较条件相比，相互依存自我建构的个体在向上比较条件下具有更好的新颖性和灵活性表现。EEG 结果进一步表明，在相互依存自我建构的个体中，与向下比较条件相比，向上比较条件在双侧额叶、右顶叶和右颞叶区域诱发了更大的阿尔法同步。此外，在向上比较条件下，左额叶阿尔法同步介导了相互依存自我建构对创意想法产生的影响。这些发现支持了自我建构和社会比较对创意想法产生的联合效应的观点，并表明与向下比较条件相比，相互依存自我建构的个体在向上比较情境下能够更好地控制无关的干扰信息，并形成新颖的联想。
