14 DAY TRIAL // In a new series of scientific tests, published in a single study, experts have been able to determine that students who live abroad, as well as immigrants, exhibit a much higher level of creative skills than the native, when asked to solve certain problems. They have the ability to see beyond the most common use for any given objects, and to combine stuff in a way that makes sure the job gets done. This is very clear in real life, when students, for example, need to make do on their own, far away from home, and are forced to develop their own ways of doing things.
In one test, conducted by INSEAD Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior William Maddux, Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management master of business administration students were asked to resolve a situation known as the Duncker candle problem. Simply put, they were given three objects – matches, a box of tacks, and a candle. A table had previously been outfitted with a vertical cardboard, and the students were then required to place the candle on the cardboard wall in an upright position, without it dripping on the table, the wall and the floor.
The obvious solution is to empty the box of tacks, and then use it as a candle holder. A few of the tacks are then used to affix the holder to the cardboard wall. The test may seem simple, but it's an effective method to test the level of creative thinking that people exhibit. Results showed that the longer time students spent abroad, the shorter the time they needed to complete the Duncker candle problem. Details of this experiment have been published in a recent edition of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, LiveScience reports.
“This shows us that there is some sort of psychological transformation that needs to occur when people are living in a foreign country in order to enhance creativity. This may happen when people work to adapt themselves to a new culture,” Adam Galinsky, a Northwestern University expert who has conducted the research with Maddux, said in a statement. He added that students who lived abroad also proved to be very likely to get used to foreign cultures and to become open to new experiences, as opposed to those who never moved out of the country, or who only went to other places on vacation.