According to a new study, social rejection can fuel imaginative thinking.
Researchers from the Johns Hopkins University and the Cornell University found that social rejection can inspire imaginative thinking, particularly in individuals with a strong sense of their own independence.
"For people who already feel separate from the crowd, social rejection can be a form of validation," study's lead author, Sharon Kim, said.
"Rejection confirms for independent people what they already feel about themselves, that they're not like others. For such people, that distinction is a positive one leading them to greater creativity," Kim added.
Social rejection has the opposite effect on people who value belonging to a group: It inhibits their cognitive ability.
The study considered the impact of rejection on people who take pride in being different from the norm. Such individuals, in a term from the study, were described as possessing an "independent self-concept".
"What we tried to show in our paper is that exclusion from a group can sometimes lead to a positive outcome when independently minded people are the ones being excluded," Kim said in a statement.
