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[Below is the original script. But a few changes may have been made during the recording of this audio podcast.]
For the recently graduated or retired—or those who have some unexpected free time thanks to the recession—consider the benefits of an extended trip abroad.
A study published recently in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found evidence that living abroad enhances creative thinking.
Researchers tested the creativity of business students. Students were given a candle, box of tacks and matches, and were told to construct a way to attach the candle to the wall, so that wax would not drip on the floor.
And it turns out that the length of time spent living abroad is a significant predictor of coming up with the most creative solution.
But, it was only living abroad that rewarded students with increased creativity. Two weeks of hostel hopping don’t count.
And it’s not that creative people are more likely to live abroad. Access to different culture and novel ideas increases both new ways of problem solving, as well as the willingness to actually apply novel solutions. Such as emptying the box of tacks, hot waxing the candle to the box and then tacking the box to the wall.
So here’s to science for bolstering the argument for living in Costa Rica until the recession is over!
—Christie Nicholson
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22 Comments
Add CommentAnother way not to have wax on the floor - just don't light the candle.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is a really dumb story, ALL creativity was measured by this one task? "The most creative solution" - like that is a measurable, objective action?
I concur - in order to take this even remotely seriously, we need to have the question answered - what was defined as "most creative" and what criteria was used to define "lesser creative" solutions?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf a popular press article about a scientific study sounds fishy, it seems like the reporter is usually to blame. I've developed a habit of reading the original source whenever it's freely available.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn fact, the article being reported on, "Cultural Borders and Mental Barriers: The Relationship Between Living Abroad and Creativity", included five different studies. The study mentioned above measured creativity by a simple success or failure at the task.
http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/psp9651047.pdf
Haven't been abroad have you? How can you say it isn't true if you haven't replicated the experiment?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere's nothing more pathetic than people who have no knowledge in a subject, have never experienced the subject but can't keep from being naysayers. They are the problem with this world. They believe the little voices in their heads and not empirical evidence. Folks, the proof is in the pudding as grandmother used to say. CAN YOU PROVE IT IS NOT SO?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have lived outside the U.S. (in Mexico) for almost three years. "Creativity" isn't a luxury, it is a survival tool. I like the use of the word novel, as in novel ways of doing things. When I click my heels three times and say "There's no place like home", nothing happens. What would Dorothy and friends have done if they were stuck in Oz? I'm sure Dorothy would have been VERY creative just trying to survive.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWith all respect, I'm from Costa Rica, and I'd say that creativity is something related to creation, to create something is to excersise the capability of being as "The Creator of the Creation". In a society where basic survival is well guaranteed, people become dumb. Everybody knows that when you need, you become creative to fill that need. TV and the WEB create needs, those are supplied so easy that people almost don't have to think in order to fullfill them. Intelligence is the the basis of creativity, in a sodomized education world, people is not raised to think, therefore not to use intelligence, therefore not to be creative. People who live abroad (I live in Madrid), we become more creative because we face the adaptation of being alone, in a foreign country, in a different culture, with different people, we need to establish new comunication bridges, relate to them, plus providing basic needs, almost for what the human being was created. All people are creative, intelligent and with the ability to think. The problem is that most people are blinded by the normality of their reality, when you change the scene you open your eyes, not to be closed ever. Someone made a study about how to boil water in a pot...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYes it is amazing how my creative and solving parts of the brain keep on improving even at age 83. but then appalling is the stupid state of simple thought challenges. i have lived in many far places beyond my native habitat. every positive seems to have a opposite negative truf.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDoes living abroad make you more creative
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisor
do more creative people take the step to go live abroad?
... and the opposite is also true: people from abroad, at least brazilians (late stage developing countries should comply this as well), would get less creative if they went to live in the USA. why? too much facility, everything is ready-made good to go (to the oven, cooktop, computers, and everything else which is unrelated to do-it-yourself home expensive jobs). unlikewise, services for the latter are easy and inexpensive to get but you rarely find ready-to-make, automatic vehicles, all the pushbutton parafernalia and the attitude of treating relatively expensive items as disposable. result: more creativity and less polution, less complicated (i would dare say luxurious) garbage. He he its true, ask my American (NY) wife. J.Octavio (0ctaviomotta@gmail.com)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI see no reference to turmeric here. I read in the last 12 months that work was under way with mice which showed even a reversal of some of the symptoms and the plagues, and a scientific explanation of its effect. Is turmeric too cheap to mention, not enough profit in it? Will it be swept under the carpet or strategically forgotten, to make way for something more patentable?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPardon me, this comment was meant for the alzheimers article. Oops! Not enough turmeric?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI agree with you, and I am going to be abroad. I think it would be a different experience.I have heard the Dorothy's story an d like it ha ha.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI agree with you. I am going to be abroad and I think it would be a very different experience. I think human will survive in a foreign environment. And I heard Dorothy's story and like it
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think this is related to life experience yes? The more experience in life you have the more creative you become because of those different experiences. Living abroad could expand your cultural knowledge which would in turn give you a different point of view. Different points of view play into a persons creativity.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNecessity Is The Mother Of Creation.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI don't think it matters where you re-locate too. If it is somewhere sufficiently unfamiliar you will need to adapt.
Perhaps it could be Ballarat or maybe Los Angeles?
Necessity Is The Mother Of Creation.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI don't think it matters where you re-locate too. If it is somewhere sufficiently unfamiliar you will need to adapt.
Perhaps it could be Ballarat or maybe Los Angeles?
agree that :'
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDoes living abroad make you more creative
or
do more creative people take the step to go live abroad?'
Well, maybe the thruth is different - maybe the more agile people are less afraid to travel because solving problems causes them less stress.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOr maybe we have some kind of technology blindness. Several people complained that with web camera on notebook you cannot send the picture of the new notebook - apparently nobody recalled there exists such thing as mirror. :D
I don't think it so related to highly developed or less developed. I think that point of view considers "challenge" to be more like an inconvenience. There are many profound challenges in adjusting to a truly foreign culture, whether it is highly developed or not. I'm an American who spent years living in Japan, including language fluency as an adult. Japan is in many ways more developed than the US. But living there still creates tremendous challenges, not the least of which is trying to comprehend a truly different culture. The language as well gives thousands of puzzles and challenges and different ways of thinking about things. Even if a highly developed country has advanced tools, one can be constantly challenged to use them better. The very complexity of the tools can make them more challenging.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisImmediately after I finished college, I lived in Australia for several months with an Australian friend I had met the year before but barely knew. Having no money, as well as nothing and no one familiar to rely on forced me to be more creative in how I approached each day, the kind of creative thinking that builds psychological strength and resilience. Self-discovery and creative problem-solving are always going to be part an experience like that. I am also a creative arts therapist and writer, so I have an intense professional interest in studies such as the one reported here but my personal experience building that creative "muscle" while living in a foreign country bears it out.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think Octavio and way2 make great points. After moving from US to Argentina six years ago, I've had to invent all kinds of solutions to problems, including phone failure, plumbing leaks, power outages. . . and also how to whip up great, nutritious meals with whatever is available this week.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHere it is not enough to have Plan B...you need Plans C, D, and E as well! Interestingly, during this time "Creativity" moved up into my top 5 on the VIA Signature Strengths Questionnaire free at www.authentichappiness.com)