So Your Grandchild Wants a Year Abroad? Go for It!

It’s pretty obvious – living in another country is liable to broaden the mind. Now, as with other evident but non-proven relationships, someone has done a study. Writing in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Northwestern University scientists have reported their results from 5 studies covering this topic.

The researchers wanted to measure creativity in different people. In one study, they used the Duncker candle problem. Given a cardboard wall, a candle, a booklet of matches and a box of tacks, students were asked to attach the candle to the wall so that it burns properly and doesn’t drip wax on the floor or table. The correct way is to use the box of tacks as a candleholder, tacked to the wall with the candle standing inside. This is considered a measure of creativity, as it involves using an object (the tack box) for an unusual purpose (candle holder). Results of the test in business administration students showed that the longer students had spent living abroad, the more likely they were to come up with the creative solution.

Another test involved mock negotiations about the sale of a gas station. A deal based solely on sale price was impossible (the seller’s minimum price was set above the buyer’s maximum). However, as both parties wanted the sale to go through, a deal could be reached by a creative agreement satisfying both people’s interests. The students who had lived abroad were more likely to reach a deal that demanded creative insight; time spent traveling abroad didn’t matter, only time spent living abroad.

In a third test, the candle problem was run with US students at a business school in France. The more students had adapted themselves to the foreign culture, the more likely they were to solve the problem. The remaining studies were designed to strengthen the hypothesis that living abroad was the critical factor for increased creativity; they did, in fact, confirm the original findings.

In my lengthy lifetime, I’ve lived for diffeent periods - up to 16 years - in 5 different countries, so my creativity ought to be bursting from my brain. But maybe I’m the exception that thwarts the hypothesis.