A stamp in a passport teaches no new way of thinking on its own, and it is still common to say travel opens the mind. In three experiments people recalled an experience from another culture, some describing it and some explaining it. So what separated the two?
Curiosity counts. Here is the answer.
Not the trip itself. In three experiments participants recalled an experience from another culture in different ways. Some described what they saw, and some explained what a foreign custom means and why people behave that way. Only the combination of two conditions helped, actually having lived abroad together with the explaining, and those who got it did better on tasks demanding an unusual use for an object. The caveat: the experiments activated a memory for a few minutes and measured creativity in a laboratory, so they do not prove a stable change in thinking over years.
Explaining it, not having been there. People who had lived abroad and explained the meaning or the function of a foreign custom became more at solving problems. They also overcame better, the tendency to see only an object’s usual use. A shallow description of what they saw was not enough. , rather than distance, was the mechanism proposed.
Living abroad has been linked to creativity before, and a link like that can arise because more curious people are the ones who choose to move.
The experiments tried to isolate a mechanism through their : recalling a cultural explanation rather than only a foreign image.
The effect appeared in people who had a real experience of living abroad, on which they could build the recollection.
Creativity in a laboratory is a narrow ability. Nothing here promises that emigration will improve work, art or decision making.
wat. Living abroad helped creativity only where the experience turned into learning about the meaning behind another custom.
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An encounter with difference becomes knowledge only when you try to understand the logic inside it, instead of collecting strange sights.
How do we know?
Three experiments used different memory prompts and then measured ideational flexibility, recognition of connections and problem solving with objects.
What is still unknown
The experiments activated a memory briefly and measured creative tasks in a laboratory; they do not prove a stable change in a career.
Learn something?
Where to next
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