The dark side of residential mobility: The impact of residential mobility on malevolent creativity

Amid accelerating urbanization and globalization, understanding the psychological and behavioral impacts of increasing population mobility is critical. Through three complementary studies (N = 1252), this research examined how residential mobility influences malevolent creativity. Study 1 employed self-report measures to establish the association between residential mobility and malevolent creativity and identified the Dark Triad as a mediating factor. Study 2 experimentally manipulated residential mobility via scenario-writing tasks, demonstrating its effect on malevolent creativity. Study 3 replicated and extended these findings by employing experimental manipulations and first-person malevolent creativity tasks, showing that residential mobility enhances malevolent creativity while stability suppresses it, with the Dark Triad partially mediating these effects. Collectively, the results indicate that residential mobility fuels malevolent creativity by fostering Dark Triad traits.