Living Abroad Enhances Creativity
A new study confirms what many have long suspected: living abroad changes the way one looks at the world. The results of this study by organizational behavior specialists Adam Galinsky and William Maddux appeared recently in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Maddux, a professor at INSEAD, a business school in Fontainebleau, France, notes that this experience should involve integration into a foreign culture, not just exposure to one. The experience of traveling in foreign countries is not nearly as effective. Those who adapt to a new culture derive the maximum benefit.
Studies related to creative problem solving have been conducted since 1945. In one, the Duncker candle problem, Psychologist Karl Duncker gave his subjects a candle and a box of tacks, and then asked them to find a way to attach the candle to the corkboard, so that when it is lit, wax will not drip on the floor. Typically fewer than 30% participants find the solution: attaching the candle to the cardboard box and tacking the cardboard box to the corkboard.
Galinsky, of the Kellogg School of Management in Chicago, and Maddux presented 155 American business students and 55 foreign students in the U.S. with the candle problem. They found 60% of students who were either currently living abroad or had spent some time living abroad solved the problem, while only 42% of those who had not lived abroad did so.
Another experiment, a one-on-one negotiation, required participants to find a mutually acceptable deal on the sale of a gas station. Participants were 72 Americans and 36 foreigners, who were divided into teams of two. The teams who introduced a negotiating variables other than price were considered creative. When both negotiators had lived abroad, 70% struck a deal in which the seller was offered a management job at the gas station in return for a lower asking price. When neither of the negotiators had lived abroad, none reached a solution.
What is it about living abroad that changes people? For one thing, the experience of a new culture provides access to a greater number of novel ideas and concepts, which stimulate for the creative process. Second, living abroad allows individuals to approach problems from different perspectives. Living in foreign cultures makes individuals aware that certain behaviors (kissing on the cheek, talking loudly) have different meanings in different cultures. Third, experiences in foreign cultures can increase one’s readiness to accept and utilize ideas from unfamiliar sources.
It could also be that individuals who decide to live abroad are more creative to begin with. Or that individuals who come to the U.S.from other countries to study are more creative as well as being exceptional in other ways.
A worthwhile, but more difficult study would be to evaluate the real world performances of individuals who have lived abroad. Meanwhile, it might be useful to look at the number of foreign born entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley.
Meanwhile, research into how the brain works is becoming more sophisticated all the time. How We Decide
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