Bicultural individuals outperform monocultural peers on creative tasks

Evidence

Our more recent work in collaboration with Carmit Tadmor at Tel Aviv University discovered the importance of a multicultural identity as a means of translating foreign experiences into creative as well as professional advantages. In particular, we found that those who are able to successfully integrate the identity of their host or foreign culture, while at the same time also retaining their home or native culture identity, may be particularly well positioned to realize creative and other professional benefits. In one study, we queried a group of INSEAD MBAs, all of whom had previously lived abroad, about their experiences in different countries, in particular the extent to which they felt they identified with both their home culture and the culture in which they lived abroad. Later, we asked them to do the unusual uses test by thinking of as many creative uses for a brick as possible within 2 minutes (Guilford, 1950). We found that “biculturals,” those who highly identified with both their home and host countries, came up with the most creative uses for a brick compared to those who identified with only their host country (termed assimilated individuals; see Berry, 1997), those who identified with only their home country (separated individuals), or those who identified with neither country (marginal individuals; Tadmor et al., 2010, study 1). — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2250

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader literature on identity integration and creativity in organizational psychology; also resonates with claims about multicultural experience enhancing cognitive flexibility.
• SEED: Potential article angle: does retaining home identity while adopting host culture confer measurable cognitive advantage, and what does that imply for immigration policy and expatriate management?