Citation

Perchtold-Stefan CM, Rominger C, Papousek I, Fink A. Brain Res. 2022; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, International Brain Research Organization, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.brainres.2022.148201

PMID

36521515

Abstract

Research interest in gender differences in aggression and creative ideation cumulates in the phenomenon of malevolent creativity. Taking another critical step in understanding malevolent creativity, we investigated gender differences in brain activation and functional coupling of cortical sites in the EEG alpha band while n = 88 women and men purposefully generated malevolent creative ideas for taking revenge on others.

RESULTS showed that malevolent creativity performance between the genders was similar; however, their underlying EEG patterns were markedly different. While women exhibited a steep decrease of task-related alpha power from frontal to left central-temporal, men's malevolent creative ideation was characterized by a more diffuse pattern of task-related alpha power changes, along with decreased frontal-central coupling. Per interpretation, women's malevolent creative thinking may more strongly rely on controlled semantic memory retrieval and novel re-combination of social/relationship information, while men may utilize more automatic motor-related imagery that may predominantly facilitate physical revenge ideation. Our findings add novel evidence to the idea that women and men engage different neurocognitive strategies to achieve similar creative performance and may help to further illuminate the darker side of creative ideation.

Language: en

Keywords

gender differences; alpha power; event-related de-/synchronization; malevolent creativity; phase locking