최근 개인의 ‘창의성’ 증진이 모든 영역에 화두로 떠오르면서 창의성의 향상 방안이 다양하게 연구되고 있다. 본 연구는 개인이 착용한 패션에 의해서 창의성이 어떻게 영향을 받으며, 그 과정에서 개인의 성향이 패션과 창의성간에 어떤 조절역할을 하는지 살펴보았다. 패션은 ‘제 2의 피부’(The Second skin)’라고 불리 울 정도로 착용자와 매우 밀접하며, 개인은 패션과 상호적으로 영향을 주고받는다. 개인은 자신의 정체성이나 사상 등을 표현하는 도구로서 패션을 사용하기도 하고, 역으로 착용하는 패션이 착용자 개인의 성향(characteristics & tendency), 인지(cognition), 행동(behavior), 능력(abilities) 등에 영향을 미치기도 한다(Adam & Galinsky 2012; Frank & Gilovich 1988; Fredrickson et al. 1998; Gino et al. 2010; Hebl et al. 2004; Kouchaki et al. 2014; Martins et al. 2007; Johnson & Downing 1979). 그러나 패션과 착용자에 대한 대다수의 연구들이 내제된 기제 보다는 주 효과에 대한 결과적인 측면을 주로 다루었다. 따라서 본 연구는 2개의 실험을 통하여 독특성(Uniqueness)이 높은 패션과 착용자의 창의성과의 관계를 실증적으로 분석했다. 먼저 패션의 독특성이 착용자의 창의성에 긍정적인 효과를 가질 것으로 예상하고, 이를 ‘행동에 대한 점화효과(prime-to-behavior effect)’로 설명하였다. 또한 20세기 패션 분야 문헌에서 패션의 독특성에 대한 욕구와 관련이 높은 것으로 밝혀진 개인의 ‘심리적 반발심(Psychological Reactance)’이 패션의 독특성이 착용자의 창의성에 미치는 효과를 조절할 것으로 보고 이를 연구 1을 통해 검증하였다. 연구 2에서는 기존 심리학 문헌에서 또한 ‘행동에 대한 점화효과’의 조절변수로 검증된 ‘사적 자의식(private self-consciousnes)’이 연구 1에서 확인된 패션의 독특성과 심리적 반발심과의 상호작용과 착용자의 창의성간의 관계를 조절하는지 검증하였다. 연구 2의 결과, 사적 자의식의 두 가지 차원 중 ‘자기 성찰’은, 정(+)의 조절효과를, ‘내적 상태 인식’은 부(-)의 조절효과를 나타내, 패션의 영향이 ‘행동에 대한 점화효과’로 설명될 수 있음을 확인하였다. 마지막으로 패션의 독특성이 갖는 효과에 관한 학문적, 마케팅적 시사점을 제시하였다.
In this article, we reported results from two studies demonstrating that wearing highly unique fashion can enhances an individual’s creativity and this relationship between uniqueness of fashion and creativity is moderated by psychological-Reactance and private self-consciousness. We also showed that ‘prime-to-behavior’ effect explains the effect uniqueness of fashion on wearers' creativity. When individuals wear unique fashion, their creativity increases because of priming of the associated symbolic meaning of ‘unique.’ First, study 1 was set up to show that psychological-Reactance moderates the relationship between uniqueness of fashion and wearer's creativity. we used 2(uniqueness of fashion: high vs. low) × a continuous measure of psychological-Reactance between-subjects design to test our prediction. Seventy-six undergraduates (44 male) were first asked to respond to Psychological- Reactance scale items (Hong 1994). Then, they were randomly assigned to view either high- or low-uniqueness fashion stimuli chosen through a pretest. After visualizing themselves wearing the fashion items, they were asked to write down their thoughts and feelings about themselves in the clothing. Finally, to measure creativity, we asked participants to engage in a creative- idea generation task and a free-drawing task (the Test for Creative Thinking–Drawing Production; TCT-DP; Jellen & Urban, 1986). A one-way ANOVA revealed a significant main effect of uniqueness of fashion on wearers’ creativity. Participants in the high-uniqueness condition received higher creativity scores than did those in the low-uniqueness condition (fluency: Mhigh=6.63, Mlow=5.09, F(1,71)=7.53, p<.05, originality: Mhigh=4.79, Mlow=2.91, F(1,71)=18.68, p<.001, appropriateness: Mhigh= 4.63, Mlow=2.68, F(1,71)=17.25, p<.001, TCT-DP: Mhigh=42.89, Mlow=30.76, F(1,71)=23. 74, p<.001). In order to investigate the moderating effect of Psychological-Reactance, we performed regression analysis. As expected, we found a significant interaction effect of uniqueness of fashion × Psychological-Reactance on wearer's creativity (fluency: β=1.51, p<.01, originality: β=1.20, p<.05, appropriateness: β=1.49, p<.01, TCT-DP: β=7.16, p<.05)(see Table 1). For participants in the high uniqueness condition, Psychological-Reactance increased wearer's creativity (fluency: β=1.30, p<.01, originality: β=.82, p<.05, appropriateness: β= .97, p<.05, TCT-DP: β=3.70, p<.05). In contrast, for participants in the low uniqueness condition, Psychological-Reactance made no difference on wearer's creativity (fluency: β=-.21, p>.05, originality: β=-.38, p>.05, appropriateness:β=-.52, p>.05, TCT-DP: β=-3.46, p>.05). Study 2 unveiled the moderation effect of private self-consciousness through analyzing a 3 way interaction effect. Private self-consciousness has been shown to both increase and decrease the magnitude of prime-to-behavior effects (Wheeler et al. 2008). We used 2(uniqueness of fashion: high vs. low) × a continuous measure of Psychological-Reactance × a continuous measure of private self-consciousness between-subjects design. Eighty-five undergraduates (58 male) were first asked to respond to Psychological-Reactance items (Hong 1994) and private self-consciousness scale (Fenigstein et al. 1975). Experimental procedure was similar to Study 1, except that we used full fashion images to manipulate uniqueness of fashion and the RAT(Remote Associate Test) items to measure creativity (Mednick 1962). A one-way ANOVA revealed a significant main effect of the uniqueness of fashion on wearer's creativity (RAT). Participants in the high uniqueness condition scored higher on RAT than those in the low uniqueness condition Mhigh=4.92, Mlow=3.54, F(1,77)=23.74, p<.001). We found a significant interaction effect of uniqueness of fashion X Psychological-Reactance on RAT score (β=.72, p<.05). For participants in the high uniqueness condition, Psychological- Reactance increased wearer's creativity (β=.54, p<.05), whereas for participants in the low uniqueness condition, Psychological-Reactance made no difference on wearer's creativity (β= -.19, p>.05). To investigate a three-way (uniqueness of fashion × Psychological-Reactance X private self-consciousness) interaction effect, we conducted regression analysis using PROCESS Model 3 (Hayes, 2013). We examined each 2 facets (self reflectiveness or internal state awareness) of private self-consciousness for the moderation effect. The results revealed significant effects of the three-way interaction of uniqueness of fashion, Psychological-Reactance, and self- reflectiveness (β=0.36, p<.05) on wearers’ creativity. Next, we median-splitted self-reflectiveness scores. For high self-reflectiveness group (median above 3.75), increased Psychological-Reactance amplified the prime-to-behavior effect of high uniqueness of fashion on wearers' creativity, and increased Psychological-Reactance decreased the prime-to-behavior effect of uniqueness of fashion on wearers' creativity. Whereas, for low self- reflectiveness group (median below 3.75), the moderation effect was not significant. And then, the results revealed a significant effect of the three-way interaction of uniqueness of fashion, Psychological-Reactance, and internal state awareness (β=-0.77, p<.01) on wearers’ creativity. In contrast with self-reflectiveness, when internal state awareness was low (median below 4.00), increased Psychological-Reactance lowered the prime-to-behavior effect of high uniqueness of fashion on wearers' creativity, and increased Psychological-Reactance amplified the prime-to-behavior effect of low uniqueness of fashion on wearers' creativity. Whereas, when internal state awareness was high (median above 4.00), the moderation effect on wearers' creativity was not significant.