Living abroad boosts creativity but mere travel does not

Evidence

At the same time, our particular findings regarding adaptation and learning suggest that the specific approaches people take while living abroad—their mindsets and motivations—are critical in being able to realize these creative advantages; those who do not learn about or adapt to their host country are unlikely to be psychologically transformed by the experience, and thus less likely to derive a creative benefit. Indeed, other research has demonstrated that creativity may only be enhanced by general multicultural experiences (such as having parents from different countries or having foreign friends) when individuals are above a certain threshold of openness to experience (Leung & Chiu, 2008). — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2249

Several years later, after now having conducted myriad studies with college undergraduates, MBA students, and executives participating in classes and programs at various schools in the United States and Europe, we can now say with confidence that living in foreign countries does seem to make a substantial difference in people’s creative abilities. Interestingly enough, however, we have yet to find that experiences traveling abroad significantly impact creativity. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2221

Categorization

• XREF: The adaptive-transformation mechanism parallels the reader’s notes on environmental/life-experience transformation (e.g., noise and silence reframing work). — connects to: Travel yields little the traveler did not already possess perceptively — Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, 661
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: which specific ‘mindset’ interventions reliably push passive sojourners into adaptive learning?
• corroborated: 4 independent passages support this claim — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2249; Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2221