The Relationship between Creativity and Global/National Identity: Comparative Study of Lithuanian and American Students’ Sample

Abstract

The mindset of either a national or global identity was primed in the participants in the United States and Lithuania. The effects of priming on creativity were then examined. Two hundred and eighty-five participants from the United States and 95 Lithuanian participants received one of three possible manipulations: one that primed national identity, one that primed global identity, or no manipulation. They were then asked to complete measures of creativity. The results suggested that participants from Lithuania scored higher than the American participants on measures of national orientation regardless of the condition in which they participated. Lithuanian participants were the most affected by the national prime, and scored particularly low on global orientation when they were in the national identity condition. Lithuanian participants scored higher than participants from the United States on all measures of creativity, regardless of the condition. However, a country-by-condition interaction was also present, showing that participants in the US scored higher on creativity when they were in the global prime condition, while Lithuanians received higher creativity scores when in the national prime condition. Explanations and implications for these results are discussed.

Creativity and (global, ethnic, host) cultural identifications: An examination in migrant and host national samples

“…Tidikis and Dunbar (2019) found that global citizenship predicted creativity in different domains (i.e., everyday, scholarly and mechanic/scientific creativity). In contrast, Tidikis et al (2018) showed that a global prime condition increased creativity only among US participants, while national ethnic identification increased creativity among Lithuanian participants. In any case, with the exception of biculturalism, cultural identity processes have rarely been considered to shape creative behavior directly (Gläveanu and Tanggaard, 2014), and, to our knowledge, the role of global vs. ethnic culture identification, or global vs. host culture identification (e.g., in migrants) have not been considered in tandem.…”

“…This translates into a high relationship focus that makes them better at generating relationships between loosely connected ideas, which is also the basis for creativity. attachment or constructive patriotism (i.e., love for one's country) vs. glorification or superiority of one's home nation over other nations (see Clerkin, 2013;Tidikis et al, 2018). Only a few recent studies examine the associations between global or local (ethnic) identifications and creativity, and results are inconclusive.…”

“…We examine the link between global culture identification and creativity, in two different samples residing in Barcelona (Spain): a host national (and largely student) sample and a diverse community sample of people of migrant origin. Given the existing mixed findings on the effects of global vs. ethnic national/local identity on creativity (Tidikis et al, 2018;Mehta, 2019), and the lack of research examining both cultural identifications comparatively, our goal was to study the contributions of both global and ethnic culture identifications on creativity. Moreover, drawing on previous literature on multicultural identities, we included the potential contribution of host culture identification to creativity in the immigrant sample.…”

“…Even though we tried to take an emic-etic approach (Berry, 1999) when coding creativity, by keeping in mind the universe of uses generated by the same cultural group (criterion adapted from Goclowska et al, 2012), 13 coders' cultural background may have biased results in favor of host nationals. Future studies should more carefully acknowledge and control for the influence of culture in the measurement of creativity, for example by using raters that match the cultural background of their study participants (for some examples, see Sun, 2018;and Tidikis et al, 2018).…”

Mathematical Creative Thinking-Ethnomathematics based Test: Role of Attitude toward Mathematics, Creative Style, Ethnic Identity, and Parents’ Educational Level

“…Moreover, research has highlighted the relationship between mathematical creative thinking (MCT) and students' overall competence and sense of identity within their cultural environment (Hongjia et al, 2018). Hence, MCT is not only an academic pursuit but also a means of strengthening students' affiliation with their ethnicity and culture (Soler Pastor et al, 2022;Tidikis et al, 2018). Despite these insights, the factors influencing student creativity, particularly in mathematics, remain unclear (Liu et al, 2021;Power, 2015;RN Wang & Chang, 2022;Wu et al, 2022).…”