%0 Journal Article
%T Unintentional Inception: When a Premium Is Offered to Unintentional Creations.
%A Fulmer AG
%A Reich T
%J Pers Soc Psychol Bull
%V 0
%N 0
%D Dec 2021 29
%M 34964380
%F 4.56
%R 10.1177/01461672211063750
%X Creations can be fundamentally intended or unintended from their outset. Past work has focused on intentional creations, finding that people place a premium on effort. We examine the role of unintentionality in the inception of creations in six studies using a variety of stimuli (N = 1,965), finding that people offer a premium to unintentional creations versus otherwise identical intentional creations. We demonstrate that the unintentionality involved in the inception of a creation results in greater downward counterfactual thought about how the unintentional creation may have never been created at all, and this in turn heightens perceptions that the creation was a product of fate, causing people to place a premium on such creations. We provide evidence for this causal pathway using a combination of mediation and moderation approaches. Further, we illuminate that this premium is not offered when a negative outcome is ascribed to an unintentional creation.