The dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy defines it as “bloody mockery, biting and cruel irony with which someone or something is offended or mistreated.” It is difficult to think that something that by definition is ruthless can be beneficial to those who exchange it. However, a study by de la , a business professor at Columbia Business School, and INSEAD, the European business school, found that sarcasm could offer important benefits (yes, benefits) on a psychological and organizational level.
“To create or decode sarcasm, both expressers and receivers need to overcome the contradiction (i.e., psychological distance) between the literal and actual meaning of sarcastic expressions. This is a process that activates and is facilitated by abstraction, which in turn promotes creative thinking,” Gino said.
Gino adds that they have not only managed to demonstrate the causal effect of creativity that arises from sarcastic expressions, and explore the relational cost that those who express and receive sarcasm have to endure, but they also demonstrated, “for the first time, the cognitive benefits that recipients can collect.” Furthermore, and also for the first time, this research “proposed and showed that to minimize relational cost and still benefit creatively, it is better to use sarcasm between people who have a trusting relationship.”
This is a process that activates and is facilitated by abstraction, which in turn promotes creative thinking.
“While most previous research seems to suggest that sarcasm is detrimental to effective communication because it is perceived more as disparaging than sincerity, we found that, unlike sarcasm between parties who do not trust each other, sarcasm between individuals who share a relationship of trust does not generate contempt any more than sincerity,” Galinsky said.
In a series of studies, researchers involved 300 people whose creativity was tested by performing simulated conversation tasks, for which they were randomly assigned conditions labeled “sacastic,” “sincere”; or “neutral”, so they had to express themselves that way and, at the same time, they would receive one of those responses. The results revealed that those people who made sarcastic comments (as well as those who received them) were 3 times more creative than the control group. According to Li Huang, they found that “sarcasm can stimulate creativity, the generation of ideas, solutions, ideas or problems that are new and useful. As Oscar Wilde believed, sarcasm may represent a lower form of wit, but it seemed to us that it certainly channels a higher form of thought.”
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The researchers hope their work inspires a renewed view on sarcasm. They maintain that further research is necessary to better understand how the tone of sarcasm can affect communication in relationships, as well as the cognitive processes of individuals. Gino thinks that with the help of communication and organization teachers, people could be educated on an appropriate way to use sarcasm in the work environment, so that both employees and the organization they work for can benefit creatively.
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