The Impact of Authentic Pride on Verbal Divergent Thinking in Middle School Students: The Roles of Need for Cognition and Prosocial Tendencies

The impact of emotions on individual creativity is complex and diverse, involving the extensive participation of various psychological activities. However, there is still limited understanding of how specific emotions, such as authentic pride, stimulate individual creativity. Therefore, this study surveyed 769 middle school students to explore the influence mechanism of authentic pride on their divergent thinking. The results indicated significant positive correlations among authentic pride, need for cognition, prosocial tendencies, and verbal divergent thinking. Furthermore, authentic pride was found to directly influence verbal divergent thinking. It also exerted indirect effects through the mediating roles of need for cognition and prosocial tendencies individually, as well as through their serial mediation. The findings of this study support the Broaden-and-Build Theory and the Motivated Information Processing Model, providing new insights for fostering the divergent thinking of middle school students.