Creativity and the expat life

By The Economist | LONDON

GOOD news for those whose working lives take them to foreign countries for long periods. Scientists have found a link between creativity and living abroad. This week's Economistreports on a study (pdf) undertaken by academics at INSEAD and Kellogg School of Management, who tested 155 American business students and 55 foreign ones studying in America.

Given a candle, some matches and a box of drawing pins, the students were asked to attach the candle to a cardboard wall so that no wax would drip on the floor when the candle was lit. (The solution is to use the box as a candleholder and fix it to the wall with the pins.) They found 60% of students who were either living abroad or had spent some time doing so, solved the problem, whereas only 42% of those who had not lived abroad did so.

A second test found that those who had lived abroad were more creative negotiators. And even once the researchers had discounted the possibility that creative people were more likely to choose to live abroad, the link between creativity and foreign life held good, "indicating that it is something from the experience of living in foreign parts that helps foster creativity".

The report's authors supply no great detail as to why living abroad should stimulate the creative juices. But their conclusion contains the most likely rationale:

It may be that those critical months or years of turning cultural bewilderment into concrete understanding may instill not only the ability to “think outside the box” but also the capacity to realize that the box is more than a simple square, more than its simple form, but also a repository of many creative possibilities.

That's something to bear in mind when the boss tells you you're being relocated to Baghdad.

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