**2.3 Emotional intelligence**

Emotional intelligence is the mindfulness and evaluation of one's own emotions and that of others to control those emotions for purposes of influencing emotional outcomes for greater creative and productive performance [18]. The findings of recent research by Anderson [15] indicate that our ability to use our mind to understand emotions within our space or impact on our environment and control that emotion to the extent of developing new ideas or solving problems creatively is an art of emotional intelligence and application toward the achievement of organizational objectives [19]. Moore [20] posits that people who have a high level of emotional intelligence can manage the relationship in a manner that fosters creativity by showing a high level of emotional constraint and empathy, which correlates with leadership effectiveness, team success, and employee performance [20]. Emotional intelligence provides the opportunity for people to be aware of how emotions influence creativity and performance to harness specific emotional states of the person or employee for developing creative solutions within the organizational or personal goals. This is affirmed in a study conducted on young business professionals [21], where it was established that emotional intelligence improves moods, and persons with emotional intelligence can turn good moods into creativity at the workplace. The findings of this study collaborate with a Yale-led study reported in the *Journal of Creative Behavior*, which explains that leaders who possess emotional intelligence have the tendency of fostering happy moods and creativity in the organization [22]. The Yale study conducted by research scientist Zorana Ivcevic and colleagues at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence surveyed close to 15,000 people in the USA to assess the level of emotional intelligence of leaders and the impact on the work of employees [22]. The research, which was conducted in 2017, indicated that 70% of employees whose leaders showed little or no emotional intelligence described their emotions and moods in the work environment in negative terms and showed no signs of being intrinsically

motivated to either work or be involved in any creative work at the workplace [22]. This was in sharp contrast in work environments with emotionally intelligent leaders. Employees with emotionally intelligent leaders appeared to be happy, fulfilled, intrinsically challenged to be more creative and contribute toward the achievement of work goals [22]. Emotional intelligence empowers a leader with the right skill to create a conducive work environment to accommodate varying views, ideas, and to refocus employee emotions to drive creativity and innovation [23]. The leader or organization does not always embrace the drive for creativity at the workplace, which sometimes leads to negative emotions such as disappointment, pain, or betrayal.

A story is told of how Spencer Silver, a scientist at 3M in 1968, set out to create adhesive for aircraft, but the adhesive turned out to be weak, and his creative work was rejected and put aside by the company [24]. Years later, when Art Fry, a chemical engineer in the same company 3M, experienced negative emotions of frustration, disappointment, and pain of losing his place in the choir, he used some of Spencer's adhesive to coat one side of a paper to mark some pages of the hymn book. He realized that after unconsciously pasting and removing the paper with Spencer's adhesive at the same spot in the hymn book, the page of the hymn book was not destroyed. When he realized the potential value of the paper with adhesive, he quickly brought it to the attention of his superiors; surprisingly, he was ordered to stop work. Art Fry, however, ignored the orders of his superiors, bypassed laid down procedures, and continued working on the project using the company's equipment without permission. The company eventually identified the usefulness of Art Fry's creative work, which became known as Post-it and manufactured it [24]. In this story, we realize that the creative performance led to the profitability of the company, but the act of defiance of superior orders and scholars [24] categorize dishonesty in use of the company's asset at the time when the project was a personal one as the dark side of creativity. According to Professor Francesca Gino, of Harvard University, and Professor Dan Ariely, of Duke University, creative thinking makes people justify wrongdoing or dishonesty as long as they aim to or achieve creative performance (e.g., "I am not stealing this; I am just borrowing it; I will return it as soon as I am done") [24]. They posit that this behavior is a slippery slope: once an individual begins to justify or make the excuse for such wrongful behavior, they are likely to engage in the dark side of creativity [24].

#### **2.4 The dark side of emotional creativity**

Can a person's emotion lead to bad or dark creativity? There is a current debate as to whether creativity can be considered bad or dark or whether it is the intent of the use of the creative idea or product, which can lead to creativity being categorized as dark. Several research studies, such as [25, 26], argue that creativity does have a dark side if we consider not only the harmful application but the moral or ethical processes of creative ideation or performance as well. The argue that the excitement, passion, joy, or desperation of creating something new or achieving something that can transform a person from an unknown figure to a celebrity or public figure motivate people to use all means, including dishonesty, to attain a creative performance goal [25]. Such people tend to have high moral flexibility (i.e., making excuses to make unethical behavior appropriate) [25] and use it to cure themselves of guilt. If we were to go by this assertion, then most people may have engaged in the dark side of emotional creativity without even knowing. Reflect over the number of times, you were late for an appointment, and out of fear of losing a contract, you conjured and told a very beautiful and believable story to your client. Or the time when someone with amorous

#### *Emotional Creativity DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.104544*

feelings toward you gifted you with something valuable, and when your spouse found out, you told her a story of how you were going to surprise her with it. In all these scenarios, the lie may be original, creative but did not harm anyone; hence, some will say, this is pure ingenuity and there is nothing dark about it since it did not harm anyone. However, persons who believe creativity has a dark side argue that the use of creative thinking to tell lies or deceive someone into acting in a certain way or believing something that does not exist has demonstrated the dark side of creativity.

The argument then arises that, if a notorious criminal uses deceptive but creative means to lure another wanted criminal to aid in police intelligence, will that be considered as purely creative or still darkish? Some scholars [27] assert that some creative performance adjudged as dark creativity should simply be described as creativity and that there is nothing like bad or dark creativity. This is because a creative idea or a creative piece in itself is not bad or dark, but the application of the same is what makes it bad; hence, discussions of the dark side of creativity should be centered around malevolent creativity [27]. Jia et al. [6] explain that often when people talk about creativity, they are referring to benevolent creativity, which has to do with developing or coming up with new, original, and useful ideas or products, but what is often left in the back burner is the malevolent creativity, which involves the application of the new or original idea for harmful purposes. The aspects of change or novelty, which we categorized as creativity, are those that brought improvement into our lives, business, or the world, and creators of such novelty are referred to as creative geniuses [28]. Some notable persons who readily come to mind are Michelangelo, Mozart, and Picasso who are recognized for their wonderful work of arts and Thomas Edisons, Henry Fords, Albert Einsteins, and Marie Curies who are lauded for their groundbreaking discoveries in science which changed the way the world operates [28].

Prof. Susan Krauss Whitbourne in her article titled "Does Creativity Have its Dark Side?" explains that a creative piece may not have an original intent of causing harm, but someone can apply creative thinking to that same creative piece to cause harm [28]; hence, describing the dark side of creativity from the perspective of its malevolent situates the dark side of emotional creativity in proper context. She cites the example of Facebook to describe how developers of the app created a novel product to promote social interaction, but some users use the app for cyberbullying. The app was developed for a good purpose and most people use it for the good purpose of marketing their products or social interaction, but some use it for the evil purpose of cyberbullying and circulating false news. Would such a creative product be said to be darkish just because some people are applying it in a harmful way? Runco [27] posits that in such situations, the act of causing harm should be categorized as malevolent, but the creative piece or the creative thinking behind the harm is simply creativity and not dark. It is, however, clear from most contemporary research, including that of Prof. Susan Krauss Whitbourne, a Professor Emerita of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, that the description of the dark side of creativity or emotional creativity is about malevolent creativity.

#### *2.4.1 Malevolent creativity*

Malevolent creativity refers to creative ideas, creative thinking, creative performance, and creative works aimed at harming someone or with destructive consequences only [6, 28]. Malevolent creativity manifests in many actions such as telling lies, dishonesty, terrorism, spreading false information, theft, bullying, and any form of abuse. Research into factors influencing malevolent creativity indicates that while social climate, cultural atmosphere, and environment affect a person's malevolent tendencies, emotional manifestations of childhood neglect are a major cause. According to Jia et al. [6], the results of the research indicate that persons who experience childhood neglect or grow in antagonistic family settings are more likely to develop malevolent creativity in their adulthood. The findings also indicated that such individuals have difficulty in emotional recognition and regulation and, hence, have low emotional intelligence [8]. The study also found that such persons are reflective, analytical, and tenacious in their cognitive processes [6, 29], making it possible for them to draw on emotions from their childhood to inspire or motivate them to generate novel and expedient ways to attain their objectives of inflicting pain on people or damaging society as a form of revenge [8]. This finding was consistent with social information processing theory, which suggested persons whose childhood was characterized with destructive behaviors perceive neutral social information differently and interpret them as threatening, hence making them prone to acting aggressively that could induce hostile decisions, making them ready to fight [6, 30]. In all this narrative, emotions come into play. The emotions of loneliness, pain, and anger lead to a desire for revenge. When the desire for revenge meets opportunity or power, malevolent creativity is created to show the dark side of emotional creativity. This reflects the story of Adolf Hitler.

#### *2.4.2 Example of the dark side of emotional creativity: adolf Hitler*

New York Times of 1986 reported details of a play by Niklas Raadstrom, a Swedish poet, based on a childhood story of Adolf Hitler written by Alice Miller, which depicted how Adolf Hitler's personality and deeds were influenced by emotional and physical abuse suffered in his childhood [31]. The story recounts how Adolf's father, Alois, constantly beat and humiliated him. Aside from the beatings received, he was trained by his father to hide his pain by forbidding him from crying or showing pain when abused or humiliated [31]. Adolf Hitler's memoir recounts times when he proudly counted the strokes received from his father without shedding a tear and shared it as an achievement with his mother [31]. With his mother grieving over the death of three other children, she never had time to protect Adolf or care for him. He, however, loved his mother because on a few occasions she shielded him from the tyranny of his father out of fear of losing another child. It is mentioned in his memoir how he cherished the few times he slept on the same bed with his mother when his father was away. He often longed for that closeness but did not get much of it. He felt more neglected than belongingness. He had no one to turn to when the pain from the abuse or humiliation was unbearable or when confused, he was lonely, unhappy, and grew in that positive emotionally deficit state [32]. How this person who struggled with his grades in school except drawing and even getting a job later in life managed to scheme his way through the army and later lead Germany and the greater part of Europe baffles many. Hitler who was known as a propaganda genius relied on his oratory skills and capitalized on widespread discontent, political infighting, and economic instability in Germany at the time to develop strong propaganda leading to Hindenburg naming Hitler a chancellor in 1933 and later gaining absolute power. Upon assuming power, his government passed a law, making Germany a one-party state (Nazi Party the only party in Germany). When that objective was achieved, he turned his focus on Europe where he invaded Poland in 1939, which led to the outbreak of World War II. He spread his tentacles, and by 1941, Nazi forces occupied most of Europe and murder over six million Jews. He committed suicide in 1945.
