Stuck in a creative rut and need some inspiration? New research suggests that living abroad may be the best way to spark your creativity. There is an abundance of anecdotal evidence which suggests that writers, painters and singers use this method to fuel their creative process. Pablo Picasso, Albert Einstein and Ernest Hemingway produced some of their most notable contributions to society outside of their homelands. Can today’s modern day international student or expatriate yield similar creative results? The answer according to the “Cultural Borders and Mental Barriers: The Relationship Between Living Abroad and Creativity” is empirically proven – yes.
Using a sample of MBA and undergraduate American business students and foreign students studying in America, William W. Maddux of INSEAD and Adam D. Galinsky of Northwestern University, proved that those who have lived abroad for an extended period had a higher propensity to be more creative than those who had not. “Gaining experience in foreign cultures has long been a classic prescription for artists interested in stimulating their imaginations or honing their crafts. But does living abroad actually make people more creative?” asked lead author William Maddux, an assistant professor of organizational behavior at INSEAD, a business school with campuses in France and Singapore. “It’s a long-standing question that we feel we’ve been able to begin answering through this research.” (US News, “To be more creative, Try living abroad”)
A series of 5 experiments tested the students’ creative thought process by challenging their creative spatial reasoning, negotiation tactics and use of cultural adaptation as a means of idea-generation. Directly following each experiment, the students were questioned about their nationality and the amount of time, if any, that they had spent living abroad. The researchers then combined this data with their performance in each experiment.
In one study, the students were presented with the Duncker candle problem. Based on a picture of various objects (a candle, a pack of matches and a box of thumb tacks) on a table next to a cardboard wall, they had to determine how to properly attach the lit candle to the wall without any wax dripping on the table or the wall. In order to see the solution of using the box of thumb tacks as a candleholder, the students needed to be able to assign an atypical function to certain objects. Their research showed that 60% of students who lived abroad solved the problem, whereas only 42% of those who had not lived abroad were able to solve the problem. They also found that having this creative hindsight was directly linked to their time spent living abroad rather than simply traveling abroad.
What does this mean for you? Living abroad forces you to see a problem in many different ways because everything is new to you. Where getting from point A to point B at home is as simple as getting into your car and driving somewhere familiar, when you are in a new country it requires a more creative thought process to get you to point B. What mode of transportation do you need? How much money will it require? What language skills do you need to use? How should you dress? You are constantly forced to think outside of the box in order to perform everyday tasks. So the next time you creativity mojo is down, take an internship abroad or go backpacking throughout Southeast Asia.
For more information about living abroad or international internships, go to http://www.goinglobal.com/.
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