Social rejection can fuel imaginative thinking, study shows.

Anger isn’t always a bad thing, especially if you have an independent streak.

A study by a Johns Hopkins University professor finds that social rejection can inspire imaginative thinking, particularly in individuals with a strong sense of their own independence.

“For people who already feel separate from the crowd, social rejection can be a form of validation,” says Johns Hopkins assistant professor Sharon Kim, the study’s lead author. “Rejection confirms for independent people what they already feel about themselves, that they’re not like others. For such people, that distinction is a positive one leading them to greater creativity.”

But social rejection has the opposite effect on people who value belonging to a group. In these individuals, rejection inhibits their cognitive ability. Kim says numerous psychological studies over the years have made this finding. With her co-authors, she decided to consider the impact of rejection on people who take pride in being different from the norm. Such individuals, in a term from the study, are described as possessing an “independent self-concept.”

“We’re seeing in society a growing concern about the negative consequences of social rejection, thanks largely to media reports about bullying that occurs at school, in the workplace, and online. Obviously, bullying is reprehensible and produces nothing good. What we tried to show in our paper is that exclusion from a group can sometimes lead to a positive outcome when independently minded people are the ones being excluded,” says Kim, who earned her Ph.D. in organizational behavior from Cornell. 

In the long term, Kim adds, the creative person with an independent self-concept might even be said to thrive on rejection. While repeated rebuffs would discourage someone who longs for inclusion, such slights could continually recharge the creativity of an independent person. The latter type, says Kim, “could see a successful career trajectory, in contrast with the person who is inhibited by social rejection.”
 

Related Story: Anger: How A Common Emotion Affects Your Body and Brain

August 19, 2012
The Healthy Mind Network
 

Story Source: The above story contains original content and/or information reprinted and editorially adapted by The Healthy Mind. Material is provided by Johns Hopkins University and EurekAlerts.

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