Academic researchers present studies amongst participants who have had intercultural and intracultural dating experiences, and discovers that individuals who have had intercultural dating experiences exhibit much more creativity than individuals who only have had intracultural dating experience. Specifically, the number of previous intercultural romantic partners does not influence an individual’s creativity; the quality and the duration of previous intercultural romantic relationships actually influence an employee’s creativity in positive ways. Similarly, having a close friend who is from a different culture also gives people a creative mindset. Moreover, entrepreneurship absolutely requires creative thinking.
- My important findings:
In the first place, new and useful ideas are extremely important for business and entrepreneurship, as the ability to identify and utilize resources from various places and to recombine them in new ways is so key. Further examination reveals that multicultural experiences (e.g. living and/or working in a foreign country) dramatically increases people’s creative thinking, as network diversity is conducive to new ideas and the depth of overseas experiences is a driver of creativity. Note that time spent living and/or working in a foreign country cultivates creativity, while time spent traveling overseas does not.
In the second place, more and more individuals are married to people who are from different cultures. It is said that intercultural relationships could foster creativity by facilitating cultural learning, i.e., the acquisition of knowledge about the values, beliefs, norms, language or customs of another culture. Research shows that when an individual is only in intra-cultural social relationships, their creative thinking is often constrained by the routines and conventions of their own culture. In contrast, when individuals have intercultural relationships, they become more open-minded and can expand their outlook.
- Intercultural friendships and creativity:
Currently, employees who use the right social networks and channels for discussing content are usually more creative. Quality features of Internet content cannot be ignored – credibility, validity, authenticity and reliability of online content must be carefully examined.
Furthermore, the ability to assimilate, value and utilize information from online sources such as social media platforms can influence a person’s creativity levels. That being said, an individual’s personality also plays a key part in this situation, for this person’s personality can influence their willingness to use social networks. For example, an introverted individual may choose not to participate in social networks, whereas an extroverted person probably wants to interact in social networks more frequently. That does not mean the extroverted person is definitely more creative than the introverted person.
Employees who use social media platforms to search, read and store information tend to be less creative than those who also use social media platforms to discuss, share, debate and synthesize information from different networks. Apart from that, individuals who have become social influencers are even more creative. These people are effective distributors online and highly creative commentators of information on the Internet.
“More importantly, those who have the abilities to select and use internet content for creating new understanding and/or knowledge are actually effective co-creators of useful knowledge. Therefore, they are practicing their higher-order thinking skills which can foster creativity effectively and efficiently.”
