Robert J. Sternberg’s research while affiliated with Cornell University and other places

Many people support and stand by political candidates in the same way that a person might support a significant other. In two studies, we preliminarily explored the utility of a triangular theory of love proposed for political figures. In the first study, data from 87 university students were used to obtain results relating to levels of intimacy, passion, commitment, and satisfaction for a participant‐chosen political figure. We hypothesized that intimacy, passion, and commitment would predict higher levels of satisfaction with political figures. Correlational analyses revealed significant relationships between all three variables and satisfaction. In stepwise multiple regressions, intimacy and passion retained significant relationships with satisfaction. In the second study, 299 university students reported levels of intimacy, passion, commitment, and satisfaction for three political figures: Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and Barack Obama. All three variables were significantly correlated with satisfaction for each candidate. Stepwise multiple regression analyses revealed that intimacy and commitment, but not passion, predicted satisfaction for Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Intimacy, passion, and commitment significantly predicted satisfaction for Barack Obama. Voters may experience a kind of love for political figures, and understanding this relationship may have implications for helping voters make informed decisions during elections.

This article introduces the concept of effectivity, which is the power to be effective or to achieve a certain effect to accomplish one’s goals, in this case, desired school or life achievement. Giftedness would be better defined and developed in terms of effectivity than in terms of various concepts of ability. The concept of effectivity hinges on the idea that what determines, or what influences achievement, includes cognitive ability, but only as a small part of the total picture. Gifted “underachievement” as well as “overachievement” disappear when one understands giftedness in terms of effectivity.

We suggest that toxic creative leaders succeed by creating a fantastic future in a fantasy world that we call “Wonderland.” They make what was thought to be impossible, not only possible but actual. The game is similar to board games that bring one of the players playing them to some wonderful destination at the end of the game. The future they create, however, is an illusion, designed to appeal to people who feel under-appreciated, disempowered, victimized, deprived of material or other resources, or in need of a radical change that will empower them. The creatively toxic leaders are usually underestimated and their overwhelming skills at acquiring and maintaining power are viewed as malleable for other powerful people’s purposes. Ultimately, the toxic creative leaders take over and end up manipulating rather than being manipulated by those who had sought to use the leaders for their own ends. We discuss some of the ways that can be used to combat toxic creative leaders so that what should have been “never again” stays that way—in the realm of impossibility.

This essay questions the framing of socioemotional development as a separate concomitant of cognitive development in gifted individuals. Rather, it argues, first, that socioemotional development of the gifted is not separate from giftedness. Second, socioemotional development is not even cleanly and clearly separable from cognitive development. Third, giftedness and even intelligence do not reside inside the person—they are not personal properties but rather interactions of persons with tasks and situations. In sum, giftedness needs to be viewed in a holistic context that encompasses integrated cognitive, socio-emotional, task, and situational contextual elements.

This article presents a new, RELIC (Real Love In Context) theory of love. The theory contains three subtheories. Two of them constitute an endosystem, or inner system of love. The triangular theory, an interpersonal theory, describes love in term of the intimacy, passion, and commitment one feels toward another person. The theory of love as a story, an intrapersonal theory, describes stories that characterize one’s ideal depiction of what love should and potentially could be. The third, extrapersonal subtheory constitutes an ecosystem, or outer system of love. Drawing on the work of Urie Bronfenbrenner, it describes five hierarchically nested environmental systems (microsystem, mesosystem, exosytem, macrosystem, chronosystem) in which love is embedded and that continually affect the love one feels for another. The forces of the ecosystem act upon the endosystem in ways that can bring couples (or larger groups) together or drive them apart.

This essay reviews a concept that is too rarely dealt with, if at all, in the literature on human intelligence, namely, dark intelligence. I argue that dark intelligence is the possession and, as relevant, deployment of creative, analytical, and practical abilities and attitudes that, in particular tasks confronted in particular situations, can be, and are used for negative, harmful, and, sometimes, malign purposes. Dark intelligence is extremely common, and the world is the worse for it. Yet intelligence research continues to focus largely on solving test-like problems that do not speak to how intelligence is deployed on particular tasks in particular situations, either for good or for evil purposes. The world is facing severe crises, such as climate change, weapons of mass destruction, violence, and enormous income disparities. Creativity researchers, recognizing these problems, have developed a thriving field of “dark creativity.” Intelligence researchers have been largely absent, however, largely ignoring the dark side of intelligence. Yet dark intelligence can be and is being used to cause harm. The world is at increasing peril from its intended and unintended consequences; understanding dark intelligence may help to mitigate some of that peril.