Social rejection can enhance creativity—if the person has a strong sense of personal independence.
“Rejection,” she says, “confirms for independent people what they already feel about themselves, that they’re not like others. For such people, that distinction is a positive one leading them to greater creativity.”
Such individuals, in a term from the study, are described as possessing an “independent self-concept.” They are, the paper says, “motivated to remain distinctly separate from others.”
Note that important character trait: an independent self-concept. Unfortunately for many others, rejection and bullying have mostly negative consequences.