What's in a Number? Minority Status and Implications for Creative Professionals

Abstract

Although women represent a large percentage of Bachelor's degrees earned, they are underrepresented in many fields of applied creative services. Utilizing the theories of proportional representation, regulatory focus, and regulatory fit, an experiment explored the relationship between demographic underrepresentation and creativity. Findings suggest that creativity is affected by proportional representation and regulatory fit. In a categorization task, a feeling of regulatory fit led to more inclusive, creative categorization than those experiencing regulatory mismatch. Further, in a creative brick uses task, majority status individuals generated more creative responses than minority status individuals. The findings suggest proportional representation and regulatory fit are two environmental factors that can have an impact on creative output for individuals working in fields of applied creative services.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Wei-Na Lee for guidance on this project.

Notes

Note. Reg. Focus/RF = regulatory focus; Prop Rep./PR = proportional representation.

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