Study Suggests Living Abroad Fosters Creativity

A new study published by the American Psychological Association suggests that living abroad expands people's minds. Literally.

The research, consisting of five studies with students at an array of universities, including the Sorbonne and my next door neighbor the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern, suggests a link between creative capacity and living abroad.

As Reuters writes, researchers have been careful to point out, however, that while the links seem clear, they have not proven that living abroad is the cause of increased creativity.

“This research may have something to say about the increasing impact of globalization on the world, a fact that has been hammered home by the recent financial crisis,” said the study’s lead author, William Maddux, assistant professor of organizational behaviour at INSEAD. “Knowing that experiences abroad are critical for creative output makes study abroad programs and job assignments in other countries that much more important.”

This provides a bit of validation the thesis we operate on at the Center for Global Engagement, which is that regardless of how someone wants to change the world, their is no in-classroom substitute for actually learning from communities experiencing the problems they seek to address.

It also adds momentum to the work of people like Abby Falik, whose Global Citizen Year is working to institutionalize a global gap year between high school and college.

It also challenges us all to expand our understanding of education and think about how we foster creativity writ large, and to think about equal access to international programs - which still by and large price out huge parts of the studentpopulation - as a serious educational imperative.

Read the full study here and check out Global Citizen Year's recruitment video, embedded below.