The reason why sarcasm might enhance creativity is that the brain itself has to think outside of the box to understand or convey a sarcastic comment, so "sarcasm may lead to clearer and more creative thinking."
"To either create or understand sarcasm, tone must overcome the contradiction between the literal and actual meanings of the sarcastic expressions. This is a process that activates, and is facilitated by, abstraction, which in turn promotes creative thinking," Gino added.
However, the researcher suggested keeping snarky remarks to people you know well to avoid unnecessarily offending others (even if that would help them think more creatively). "Our studies show that, given the same content and tone, sarcasm expressed toward or received from someone we trust is less conflict provoking than sarcasm expressed toward or received from someone we distrust. Of course, if we were to vary the tone and content, it would make a difference too – given an extremely harsh tone and critical content, even trust might not be enough," she concluded.
