Multicultural Experience, Idea Receptiveness, and Creativity

By Angela Ka-yee Leung, Chi-Yue Chiu. 2010

446 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Inspired by recent advances in creative cognition research, the authors examined in the current research some creative benefits of multicultural experiences. Study 1 showed that European American undergraduates had better creative performance immediately after being exposed to American and Chinese cultures or to a hybrid culture formed by fusing American and Chinese cultures; this effect was also observed 5 to 7 days after the initial exposure. Studies 2 and 3 showed that exposure to multicultural experiences is positively related to the likelihood of engaging in some creativity-supporting processes—generation of unconventional ideas (Study 2) and receptiveness to ideas originated from foreign cultures (Study 3). Finally, in Studies 4 and 5, the authors found that need for cognitive closure (or the need for firm answers) and existential terror significantly attenuated the positive link between multicultural experiences and receptiveness to ideas originated from foreign cultures. The authors discussed these findings’ implications on multicultural learning and creativity.

Subfields: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f1b6b8ae6c0e63e596678994ea2e8b5afd9b5416

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

In Social Psychology

In Sociology and Political Science

Citations in the corpus

Culture as situated cognition: Cultural mindsets, cultural fluency, and meaning making (2011, background): “Culture as situated cognition: Cultural mindsets, cultural fluency, and meaning making”
Multiculturalism and Entrepreneurial Intentions: Understanding the Mediating Role of Cognitions (2018, background): “In addition, our results also shed light on studies (Cheng et al., 2011; Fee & Gray, 2012; Lee, Therriault, & Linderholm, 2012; Leung & Chiu, 2010; Leung et al., 2008; Stevens, Plaut, & Sanchez-Burks, 2008; Tadmor, Satterstrom, Jang, & Polzer, 2012) that suggest that multicultural experiences lead…”
Asian-Americans' Creative Styles in Asian and American Situations: Assimilative and Contrastive Responses as a Function of Bicultural Identity Integration (2010, background): “Some studies find creativity gains only when two cultures are experienced simultaneously (Leung & Chiu, 2010) or when the problem to be solved involves both cultures (Cheng, Sanchez-Burks, & Lee, 2008).”
Multiculturalism and Creativity (2013, background): “For example, Leung and Chiu (2010) found that extensiveness of multicultural experiences was positively associated with sampling information from diverse cultures.”