Negative attributes can bring positive results

"People know that a weakness can be also be a strength, but these results show that if we actually believe it, we can use these beliefs to our advantage," said lead author Alexandra Wesnousky from New York University in the US.

The researchers conducted a series of experiments in order to assess the impact of these "silver lining" beliefs which implied that negative attributes can produce positive results.

In one of the experiments, the researchers focused on the specific silver lining theory: impulsivity is related to creativity.

The participants were divided in different groups. They read one of two mock newspaper articles: one that described scientific findings showing an association between impulsivity and creativity and another outlining scientific findings that refuted such a link.

In order to test the impact of their beliefs, as influenced by the news article, the participants then engaged in a creativity task in which they were presented with an object and instructed to generate as many creative uses for it as possible in three minutes.

Their results showed that the group that read the story linking impulsivity to creativity came up with significantly more creative uses for the object than did the group that read the story disproving this relationship.

The study appeared in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.