Antecedents of malevolent creativity: a meta-analysis of personality and press predictors

Malevolent creativity (MC) has received increasing attention in creativity research, yet findings on its antecedents have been heterogeneous. To address limitations of prior meta-analyses and incorporate a substantial number of recent studies, the present study provides an updated and methodologically rigorous meta-analysis of the links between MC and its antecedents. Guided by the 4P framework, we organized the literature into two broad categories—person and press—and examined each separately. A total of 362 effect sizes from 55 studies ( N = 21,619) were analyzed using a three-level meta-analytic model. Negative person factors showed a significant positive association with MC, r = 0.33, whereas positive person factors showed a small negative association, r = −0.14. For press-related antecedents, negative press was positively associated with MC, r = 0.25, whereas positive press showed a small negative association, r = −0.13. Moderator analyses further indicated that these associations varied as a function of age, measurement approach, and indicator type, but were relatively stable across country of study and study quality. Implications for theory and practice and directions for future research are discussed. Systematic review registration https://archive.org/details/osf-registrations-69v8x-v1 ; Identifier: doi: 10.17605/OSF.IO/69V8X .