The influence of Emotional Intelligence on Group Malevolent Creativity: Evidence from fNIRS hyperscanning

Creativity is often celebrated as a force for good, the spark that leads to new inventions, art, and solutions to human problems. Yet, the same mental machinery that allows us to imagine a better world can also be turned toward harm. This darker side, known as malevolent creativity, involves using original thinking to inflict physical, emotional, or material damage on others. While we often think of such destructive ideas as the product of a single troubled mind, history shows that they frequently emerge from groups working together, such as in coordinated attacks or organized sabotage. Understanding how groups generate these harmful ideas is crucial for public safety, but the internal workings of such a process remain largely a mystery. Researchers have long suspected that a person's ability to understand and manage emotions, known as emotional intelligence, plays a role in this dynamic. People with high emotional intelligence are generally better at reading social cues and regulating their own feelings, which might act as a brake on harmful impulses. However, it has been unclear how this trait functions when people are in a group, and what happens inside their brains when they collaborate on a task designed to be harmful.

To answer these questions, a team of researchers at Hainan Normal University conducted a study that looked directly at the brains of people working together. They recruited 120 adults and paired them up into 60 teams. Before the experiment began, the researchers measured each person's emotional intelligence using a standard questionnaire. Based on these scores, they formed two types of groups: those with high emotional intelligence and those with low emotional intelligence. The participants were strangers to one another, ensuring that their interactions started from a neutral point. Each pair was then asked to complete two different thinking tasks while wearing a special cap equipped with sensors. One task was a standard creativity test where they had to come up with unusual uses for a common object, like a button. The other task was specifically designed to trigger malevolent creativity; the pairs were given a scenario involving a romantic rival and asked to generate as many original ideas as possible for undermining that rival's reputation.

The researchers used a technology called functional near-infrared spectroscopy to observe the participants' brains. This method uses light to measure blood flow in the outer layer of the brain, which indicates which areas are active. By recording both people in a pair at the same time, the team could see if their brains were working in sync, a phenomenon known as inter-brain synchrony. The study focused on two key areas: the prefrontal cortex, which is involved in decision-making and self-control, and the right temporoparietal region, which helps us understand the feelings and perspectives of others. The researchers wanted to see if the level of emotional intelligence changed how these brain regions worked together and whether that connection influenced the type of ideas the groups produced.

The results showed a clear difference in behavior between the two types of groups. When asked to generate harmful ideas, the groups with low emotional intelligence came up with significantly more malevolent suggestions than the groups with high emotional intelligence. The low-intelligence groups were not only more harmful in their ideas but also more creative in their ability to invent those harmful schemes. In contrast, when the groups worked on the harmless creativity task, the high-intelligence groups performed better, showing that their social skills helped them in positive contexts but acted as a restraint when the goal was to cause harm. This suggests that emotional intelligence does not simply stop people from being creative; rather, it specifically curbs the generation of ideas intended to hurt others.

Looking inside the brains of the participants revealed the mechanism behind this behavioral difference. The groups with high emotional intelligence showed much stronger synchronization between their brains, particularly in the prefrontal cortex and the right temporoparietal region. When one person in a high-intelligence pair had an idea, the other person's brain in these specific areas lit up in a coordinated pattern. This synchronization was much weaker in the low-intelligence groups. The researchers found that the more synchronized the brains were in these regions, the fewer harmful ideas the group produced. It appears that when people with high emotional intelligence work together, their brains engage in a shared process of monitoring and empathy. The right temporoparietal region, which helps us imagine what others are feeling, seems to activate in unison, creating a collective awareness of the potential pain their ideas could cause. Simultaneously, the prefrontal cortex, which acts as a control center, works together to inhibit those impulses.

The study also uncovered a complex relationship between these brain signals and the final outcome. While high emotional intelligence directly led to fewer harmful ideas, the increased brain synchronization actually had a slight tendency to support the generation of those ideas. This creates a sort of internal tug-of-war. The direct influence of emotional intelligence acts as a strong brake, stopping the group from going down a harmful path. However, the very act of their brains syncing up, which is a sign of good teamwork and understanding, can sometimes make the group more effective at brainstorming, even if that brainstorming is for a negative purpose. The researchers found that the direct braking effect of emotional intelligence was strong enough to overcome this supportive effect of synchronization, resulting in a net reduction of malevolent creativity.

These findings offer a new perspective on how groups handle destructive impulses. It suggests that the ability to read and regulate emotions serves as a protective factor, not just for individuals, but for entire teams. When people with high emotional intelligence collaborate, their brains coordinate in a way that keeps them aware of the human cost of their actions. They do not simply ignore the possibility of harm; instead, they process the emotional weight of their ideas together, which ultimately stops those ideas from taking root. This research highlights that the neural basis of preventing harm is not just about individual self-control, but about how groups of people connect and regulate each other in real time. By understanding these neural interactions, we gain insight into the complex balance between our capacity for cooperation and our potential for destruction.