Psychology and Law
2025. Vol. 15, no. 3, 146–159
doi:10.17759/psylaw.2025150310
ISSN: 2222-5196 (online)
Malevolent creativity and information-meaning field
Abstract
Context and relevance. The phenomenon of antisocial (antisocial) creativity described earlier is realized in human behavior not directly, but through the reorganization of the information and semantic field, which sets the social situation of modern human development. The psychological characteristics of this process are not clear enough and require detailed empirical research. Objective. To analyze the relationship between the propensity for behavior in which antisocial (antisocial) creativity is realized with the information and semantic field of personality in relation to the features of the bright triad and the assessments of modern society and to identify the profile features of people with a high level of antisocial creativity. Hypothesis. There are differences in the information and semantic field, in the assessment of modern society and the level of development of the features of the light triad in people with a pronounced tendency to behavior in which antisocial creativity is realized. Methods and materials. The sample: N=316, M = 30.6, SD = 14.68% women. The following methods were used: "Behavioral features of malevolent creativity" (Meshkova's adaptation, etc.), the "Light Triad Scale” (Meshkova's adaptation, etc.), the "Characteristics of the information and semantic field" methodology (Kudryavtsev, etc.), a modified questionnaire for studying the legal awareness of law enforcement officers (Raspopin, Ermosh). Results. Significant negative correlations of antisocial creativity with the light triad were revealed, and significantly positive correlations with a more negative perception of modern society and with the total indicator of the information and semantic field. Nonparametric comparisons have shown differences between people with different tendencies to antisocial creativity in the features of the light triad, perception of modern society and in the information and semantic field of personality. Conclusions. 1. People with a high tendency to antisocial creativity have less developed features of the light triad compared to those with low levels of this tendency. 2. People with a low tendency to antisocial creativity and high indicators of the light triad are more positive in their perception of modern society. 3. An increased tendency to antisocial creativity is combined with higher values on the scale of "Information application" and the total indicator of the information and semantic field. High values in this case indicate contradictions in information and meanings that make up the information and semantic field of a personality.
General Information
Keywords: malevolent creativity, social situation of development, information-meaning field, aberrations of the information-meaning field, manipulation of behavior, LTS
Journal rubric: Methodological Problems of Legal Psychology
Article type: scientific article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/psylaw.2025150310
Funding. The study was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, project number № 25-18-00486, https://rscf.ru/project/25-18-00486
Received 30.07.2025
Revised 04.08.2025
Accepted
Published
For citation: Meshkova, N.V., Kudryavtsev, V.T., Rybakova, M.S., Yakovleva, D.V., Meshkov, I.A. (2025). Malevolent creativity and information-meaning field. Psychology and Law, 15(3), 146–159. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.17759/psylaw.2025150310
© Meshkova N.V., Kudryavtsev V.T., Rybakova M.S., Yakovleva D.V., Meshkov I.A., 2025
License: CC BY-NC 4.0
References
- Kudryavtsev, V.T., Zlokazov, K.V., Enikolopov, S.N., Meshkova, N.V., Rybakova, M.S. (2025). The phenomenon of the information-meaning field from a cultural-historical perspective. Cultural-Historical Psychology, 21(2), 73—87. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.17759/chp.2025210207
- Meshkova, N.V., Enikolopov, S.N., Kudryavtsev, V.T., Kravtsov, O.G., Bochkova, M.N., Meshkov, I.A. (2020). Age and Gender Characteristics of Personality Predictors for Antisocial Creativity. Psychology. Journal of the Higher School of Economics, 17(1), 59—71. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.17323/1813-8918-2020-1-60-72
- Meshkova, N.V., Enikolopov, S.N., Mitina, O.V., Meshkov, I.A. (2018). Adaptation of the questionnaire "Behavioral features of antisocial creativity. Psychological Science and Education, 23(6), 25—40. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.17759/pse.2018230603
- Meshkova, N.V., Kudryavtsev, V.T., Enikolopov, S.N. (2022) To the Psychological Portrait of the Victims of Telephone Fraud. Moscow University Psychology Bulletin, 1, 138—157. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.11621/vsp.2022.01.06
- Meshkova, N.V., Yakovleva, D.V., Meshkov, I.A. (2025). Adaptation of the "Light Triad Scale" on a sample of adolescents and young men. May light triad stop malevolent creativity? Psychological-Educational Studies, 17(3) (In Press). (In Russ.).
- Raspopin, V., Ermosh, O.V. (2015). Method of study of legal awareness police officers. Law Enforcement Agencies: Theory and Practice, 1, 124—129. (In Russ.). URL: https://www.elibrary.ru/item.asp?edn=txnxgf (viewed: 15.05.2025).
- Tagiltseva, Yu.R., Babikova, M.R., Vatoropin, A.S., Zlokazov, K.V., Latu, M.N., Porozov, R.Yu. (2022). Cognitive Internet technologies for the transformation of social behavior: risks and prevention: Yekaterinburg: Ural State Pedagogical University Publ. (In Russ.). URL: https://www.elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=50261097 (viewed: 15.05.2025).
- Hao, N., Tang, M., Yang, J., Wang, Q., Runco, M.A. (2016). A new tool to measure malevolent creativity: The malevolent creativity behavior scale. Frontiers in Psychology,7, Article 682. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00682
- Jia, X., Wang, Q., Lin, L. (2020). The Relationship between childhood neglect and malevolent creativity: The mediating effect of the dark triad personality. Frontiers in Psychology,11, Article 613695. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.613695
- Jonason, P.K., Abboud, R., Tomé J., Dummett, M., Hazer, A. (2017) The Dark Triad traits and individual differences in self-reported and other-rated creativity. Personality and Individual Differences, 117, 150—154, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.06.005
- Kapoor, H. (2015). The creative side of the Dark Triad. Creativity Research Journal, 27(1), 58—67.https://doi.org/1080/10400419.2014.961775
- Kapoor, H., Gurjar, S., Mahadeshwar, H., Mehta, N., Puthillam, A. (2024). Do you trust the rumors? Examining the determinants of health‐related misinformation in India. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 27(2), 144—160. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajsp.12586
- Kapoor, H., Khan, A. (2020). Creators and presses: The person—situation interaction in negative creativity. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 54(1), 75—89. https://doi.org/10.1002/jocb.346
- Kapoor, H., Puthillam, A. (2024). The crisis of misinformation and dark creativity. In: Z. Ivcevic, R. Reiter-Palmon, M. Tang, M.G. Grohman (Eds.), Crises, creativity and innovation (pp. 179—203). Palgrave Macmillan/Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-61782-9_9
- Kaufman, S.B., Yaden, D.B., Hyde, E., Tsukayama, E. (2019). The Light vs. Dark Triad of Personality: Contrasting Two Very Different Profiles of Human Nature. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, Article 467. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00467
- Szabó, E., Körmendi, A., Kurucz, G., Cropley, D., Olajos, T., Pataky, N. (2022). Personality Traits as Predictors of Malevolent Creative Ideation in Offenders. Behavioral Sciences, 12(7), Article 242. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs12070242
- Tagat, A., Thakur, A., Rezaei, S., Gurjar, S., George, D., Budhwar, Y., Puthillam, A., Kapoor, H. (2025). Can Incentives for Sharing True Information Affect Discernment? Results From an Online Experiment in India. In: L. Khan (Ed.), Oxford Intersections: Social Media in Society and Culture. Oxford: Oxford Academic. https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198945253.003.0057
Information About the Authors
Contribution of the authors
Natalya V. Meshkova — research ideas; annotation, writing of the manuscript; planning of the research; control over the research.
Vladimir T. Kudryavtsev — research ideas, writing of the manuscript; planning of the research; control over the research.
Marina S. Rybakova — data and analysis collection; design of the manuscript and references.
Darya V. Yakovleva — data collection; design of the manuscript.
Ivan A. Meshkova — application of statistical and mathematical methods for data analysis; visualization of research results.
All authors participated in the discussion of the results and approved the final text of the manuscript.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Ethics statement
The collection of empirical data was carried out anonymously. All subjects participating in the study gave voluntary consent to fill out the survey forms.
Metrics
Web Views
Whole time: 238
Previous month: 36
Current month: 9
PDF Downloads
Whole time: 58
Previous month: 9
Current month: 6
Total
Whole time: 296
Previous month: 45
Current month: 15