Going Beyond the Multicultural Experience—Creativity Link: The Mediating Role of Emotions

Abstract

This research examines the mediating role of emotions implicated in the multicultural experience-creativity link. We propose that when individuals are dealing with apparent cultural contradictions upon encountering two cultures simultaneously, mentally juxtaposing dissonant cultural stimuli could lower positive affect or increase negative affect, which could in turn induce a deeper level of cognitive processing of cultural discrepancies and inspire creativity. Two studies compared dual cultural exposure versus single cultural exposure among bicultural Singaporeans (Study 1) and compared self-relevant (jointly presenting local and foreign cultures) versus self-irrelevant (jointly presenting foreign cultures only) dual cultural exposure among monocultural Taiwanese (Study 2). As in past research, dual cultural exposure promotes creativity, particularly if one presented culture is self-relevant. Further, this effect was mediated by a less positive or a more negative emotional state. These findings illuminate the underlying influence of emotions activated by simultaneous exposure to diverse cultures.With the expansive scale of connectivity and global competition among different nations, more individuals will meet with foreign cultures that are strikingly

Toward a Social Psychology of Globalization

“…As a result, the perceivers become sensitive to the cultural significance of the stimuli (e.g., the presence of a Starbucks Coffee Shop) in the environment. Torelli et al also showed that simultaneous activation of two cultures could increase defensive, exclusionary reactions when the perceiver experiences globalization as a threat to their heritage culture (see also Chen & Chiu, 2010; Cheng, Leung, & Wu, 2011).…”

Conceptualizing psychological processes in response to globalization: Components, antecedents, and consequences of global orientations.

“…The moderating role of global orientations in multicultural experiences can also be explored. For example, though exposure to the juxtaposition of cultural stimuli fosters cognitive creativity (Leung & Chiu, 2010;Leung et al, 2008), it can induce negative emotions and exclusionary reactions (Cheng, Leung, & Wu, 2011;Torelli et al, 2011). Note.…”

Revisiting the Multicultural Experience–Creativity Link

“…First, our studies were the first to test the multicultural experience-creativity link on insight creativity. Whereas prior research predominantly tested the effect of multiculturalism on creativity measured by divergent thinking or idea generation tasks (e.g., unusual uses of a garbage bag, rewriting the Cinderella story for Turkish children; Cheng et al, 2011;, the current studies provided further evidence that multicultural experience can facilitate individuals' insight problem-solving ability, an important facet of creativity. Without replicating the main effect of different dual cultural primes (i.e., with or without self-relevant culture in the dual-cultural primes) on creativity performance (i.e., creative idea generation) reported in prior research (Cheng et al, 2011, study 2), the hypothesized interaction between perceived cultural distance and comparison mind-sets was replicated across Studies 1 and 2 with different insight problem-solving creativity tasks.…”