Harvard Researchers Say The Most Creative People Share A Strangely Snarky Habit
It turns out the most innovative minds have a sarcastic streak.
Hamed Farahpour | Unsplash If you've ever been told to tone down your sarcasm, science might actually be on your side. While sarcasm often gets a bad rap as biting or mean-spirited, research suggests there's more to this sharp-witted communication style than meets the eye.
Harvard researchers have discovered that people who regularly use sarcasm may actually have a cognitive advantage that's closely linked to creativity and abstract thinking. Far from being simply a tool for mockery, sarcasm requires a sophisticated mental process that exercises both the speaker's and listener's brains in unique ways.
Groucho Marx once said, "I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it." Sarcasm was a big part of Groucho's humor.
The definition of sarcasm: A form of humor that is marked by mocking with irony, sometimes conveyed in speech with vocal over-emphasis. Insincerely saying something which is the opposite of one's intended meaning, other to emphasize how unbelievable, or unlikely it sounds if taken literally, thereby illustrating the obvious nature of one's intended meaning. Some people say sarcasm is the lowest form of humor or is hostility disguised as humor.
Harvard researchers say the most creative people share a strangely snarky habit: they're sarcastic.
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A study suggests that the process needed to initiate and deliver a sarcastic comment may improve the creativity and cognitive functioning of both the commenter and recipient.
The study, entitled "The Highest Form of Intelligence: Sarcasm Increases Creativity for Both Expressers and Recipients," was published by Harvard Business School, Columbia Business School, and INSEAD, and comprised four different experiments. Participants were divided into groups: expressing sarcasm, receiving sarcasm, expressing sincerity, and a control group that was neither sarcastic nor sincere, and then rotated through simulated conversation tasks.
After each conversation, participants were asked to complete unrelated creativity tasks. Those who did the creativity talks after sarcastic conditions consistently did better than those who attempted the tasks after sincere or controlled conditions.
"This suggests that sarcasm has the potential to catalyze creativity in everyone," said Columbia's Adam Galinsky in an interview with The Gazette. "That being said, although not the focus of our research, it is possible that naturally creative people are also more likely to use sarcasm, making it an outcome instead of a cause in this relationship."
Saying one thing, but deliberately meaning the opposite, takes smarts, and it also takes intelligence to be able to see the humor when someone is sarcastic with you.
"While most previous research seems to suggest that sarcasm is detrimental to effective communication because it is perceived to be more contemptuous than sincerity, we found that, unlike sarcasm between parties who distrust each other, sarcasm between individuals who share a trusting relationship does not generate more contempt than sincerity, " said Galinsky.
If you speak the language of sarcasm, you just need to be sure that the person you're being sarcastic with is on the same page as you. They'll definitely take what you're saying personally. Sarcasm is a communication style that can certainly be taken the wrong way, and it becomes tedious if the sarcastic person is relentlessly negative.
Instead of viewing sarcasm as purely negative or dismissing it as the "lowest form of wit," we can recognize it for what research shows is a sophisticated mental exercise that flexes our creative muscles. Studies from the Columbia Business School have demonstrated that both delivering and receiving sarcasm activate abstract thinking processes in the brain, which in turn boost creative problem-solving abilities.
When used with care and good intentions, sarcasm can be a tool for bonding, problem-solving, and seeing the world from fresh perspectives. So if you're naturally sarcastic, don't feel pressured to completely suppress that part of your personality.
