Mere exposure to foreign cultures is insufficient for creativity gains.
Evidence
Results from these initial studies demonstrated that there is something about living abroad that predicts or enhances creative abilities. However, these results do not provide specific insight into what underlying mechanism drives this link. Nevertheless, the pattern of results from our first few studies provided some suggestions. Because we found that only living abroad (rather than traveling abroad) is associated with higher levels of creativity, it is possible that relatively immersive or transformational foreign experiences are particularly important in stimulating creativity. In addition, previous research suggests that just exposing individuals to novel cultural elements is not enough to lead to enhanced creativity; at a minimum, individuals must actively compare multiple cultures and do some cognitive work exploring the differences and similarities between multiple cultures to get enhanced creativity (Leung & Chiu, 2010). Thus, it seems likely that the association between living abroad and creativity would be weakest for those who remain aloof from their new culture (e.g., by associating only with expatriates or being unwilling or unable to adapt their behavior to different cultural contexts) and strongest for those who deeply engage with the culture and, in doing so, potentially change fundamental aspects of the way they think about and approach the social world. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2229
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the reader’s prejudice-psychology thread: passive exposure to outgroups, by analogy, may likewise require active cognitive engagement to change attitudes.
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2229