Recent research explored people who feel the need to be different. That is, people who ‘get off’ on doing things differently from the norm. The researchers found that people who like being different performed significantly better in a creative thinking task than those who do not get their kicks out of doing things differently.
Like many other studies, these results highlight that how we perceive ourselves is incredibly impactful in how creatively we perform in tasks. And of course, it can be very easy to change the way we see ourselves.
Organisations can help foster this need and perception in people by recognising and rewarding people who do things differently. Likewise, if you are looking to recruit new staff, try to assess whether they value and enjoy needing to be different from others.
In the news
Amantha has been typing away on her Logitech keyboard yet again. The result this time is an article in the current edition of Human Capital on how organisations can drive innovation. You can read the resulting article here.
When smells can sabotage
As we always bang on about, exposure to a diverse range of information is a great way to increase creativity. Here is some randomness for you to digest this tri-night…
A group of researchers decided to look at the effect of scents on attraction. They asked some ladies to rate the attractiveness of some gentlemen. However, they manipulated one little thing – they placed a bad smell near some of the men. They found that men who were standing near something that smelt bad were rated as less attractive by the ladies. This is despite the fact that the bad smell wasn’t actually attached to their bodies.
And the morale of this story? Don’t stand near smelly people if you want to attract the opposite (or same) sex.
