Development and Behavioral Validation of the Dark Creativity Deception Battery (DCDB)

Abstract

Although creativity is commonly associated with positive outcomes, emerging research has highlighted its darker side, particularly in facilitating deceptive and unethical behavior. This study introduces the Dark Creativity Deception Battery (DCDB), a novel task-based assessment designed to measure creative deception across prosocial, self-serving, and antisocial contexts. Participants (N = 755) were recruited from India, USA, and Austria. They completed several self-report measures and some deception tasks in which they generated novel and deceptive ways to address vignettes. Responses were assessed across seven parameters: creativity, moral valence, goal-directedness, deception, virtue caveat, fluency, and flexibility. Results indicated that younger individuals, lower moral disengagement, and higher negative affect were associated with creative responses in prosocial contexts. In contrast, higher trait deceptiveness and lower income were associated with self-serving and antisocial lies. Moral valence varied across tasks, with prosocial deception rated most positively. Interestingly, high psychopathy was associated with moral justifiability in self-serving deception. Deception itself was highest in antisocial and self-serving contexts, coupled with high individualizing morality, suggesting moral licensing effects. Our findings highlight the interplay between morality, personality, and creativity in deceptive behavior. The DCDB offers a new way to study creative deception beyond traditional measures. Limitations and future scope are discussed.

Pre-Registration: The study was pre-registered on OSF: https://osf.io/drhw7/