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Background: High-ability students, despite their potential, may underachieve academically. The existing literature suggests the presence of subtypes, such as perfectionistic or creative high-ability students, who underachieve for different reasons. However, empirical work identifying these profiles and linking them to underachievement remains limited. Methods: We analyzed self-reported data by 930 high-ability adolescents across Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom. We conducted a pre-registered confirmatory latent profile analysis on five dispositions theoretically relevant to underachievement: creativity, academic self-efficacy, self-regulation, perfectionistic standards, and self-criticism. We examined how these profiles related to underachievement risk, measured by academic performance and self-perceived underachievement. Results: Four profiles emerged. Two aligned with underachievement-related theories, namely the “self-satisfied” profile (low self-criticism, high self-regulation and creativity; prevalent in Asia) and the “maladaptively perfectionistic” profile (high self-criticism but low creativity, academic self-efficacy, and self-regulation; prevalent in Western Europe). Academic performance did not differ across profiles. However, adolescents in the “self-satisfied” profile were less likely to self-perceive as underachievers, while those in the “maladaptively perfectionistic” group were more likely. Interestingly, self-perception as underachievers in both profiles was positively linked with academic performance. Conclusions: These findings provide empirical evidence on subtypes among high-ability students that may differentially present underachieving risks. Full article

The behavioral immune system (BIS), which evolved to protect humans from infectious disease threats, prompts people to be sensitive to disease-connoting cues. A common denominator of many disease-connoting cues is benign physical abnormalities, such as birthmarks and obesity. Previous studies found that among people whose BIS was activated (e.g., people who were exposed to situational disease prime or chronically concerned about disease threat), disease-connoting cues could make people feel threatened by infectious disease and induce their malevolence. Malevolence is a necessary feature of malevolent creativity (MC), which is defined as creativity that deliberately leads to harmful or immoral results. According to the motivated focus account of creativity, a threat could promote creativity when creativity is relevant to the threat. Thus, infectious disease threats might increase malevolent creativity. However, whether infectious disease threats could influence MC is unknown. Therefore, the current study aims to explore the effect of infectious disease threat on MC by two disease-connoting cues (birthmark, obesity). In Study 1 (n = 174), a 2 (threat prime: infectious disease, natural disaster) × 2 (disease-connoting cue: birthmarked face, normal face) between-subjects design was used. Participants were asked to complete a malevolent creativity task (MCT). In Study 2 (n = 131), we used a perceived vulnerability to disease scale (PVD) to assess people’s dispositional tendencies of concerns about disease and selected high as well as low PVD participants. A 2 (PVD: high, low) × 2 (disease-connoting cue: obese, average-weight) between-subjects design was used. Participants were asked to complete the negotiation task to assess their MC. The results of Study 1 showed that, compared with participants in the normal face condition, participants in the birthmarked face condition showed higher MC fluency and total MC when they were exposed to situational disease prime. Compared with the natural disaster prime group, the infectious disease prime group showed higher MC fluency and total MC when they were provoked by a birthmark person. The results of Study 2 showed that, compared with the average-weight condition, the obese condition led to higher MC fluency and originality among high PVD participants. Compared with low PVD participants, high PVD participants showed higher MC fluency and originality when they negotiated with an obese person. Our studies suggest that among people whose BIS is situationally or chronically activated, birthmarks and obesity could increase MC, and people’s malevolent creativity might be induced by disease-connoting cues during the pandemic. Full article

To study the impact of perceived creativity disposition on entrepreneurial attitude and intentions, based on the theory of planned behavior, a model of the relationship between perceived creativity disposition and entrepreneurial intentions and attitude was constructed, relevant hypotheses were proposed, and the moderation mechanism of perception of university support on perceived creativity disposition and entrepreneurial intentions was also developed and analyzed. The study population included university business students in Pakistan. A sample of 330 students was selected from eight universities in Lahore and Islamabad, Pakistan. A random stratified sampling technique was executed. For this study, a cross-sectional and quantitative research design was used based on the survey process. The two-part questionnaire was used for data collection. Smart-PLS software version 3.2.7 was used to assess the hypothesis of this study. It was found that perceived creativity disposition and attitude toward entrepreneurship has a positive influence on entrepreneurial intention. It was also discovered that the perception of university support moderates the relationship between perceived creativity disposition and entrepreneurial intention. In this study, the moderation effect of perception of university support on the relationship between perceived creativity disposition and entrepreneurial intention was acknowledged. As a policy implication, the government should ensure students with an innovative entrepreneurial environment and well-built perception of university support are supported through different channels. Finally, a conceptual model was proposed based on adopting the theory of planned behavior, and the study ends with a conclusion and implications for future research. Full article