The Impact of Culture on the Creative Potential of American, Russian, and Iranian College Students

Abstract

This study presents evidence for the impact of sociocultural environment on creative potential. The divergent thinking performance of American, Russian, and Iranian college students was compared on the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults. The study revealed that, compared to the Iranians, Americans and Russians have superior abilities to consider a problem from different perspectives and to generate original solutions to a problem. The performance differences on the originality measure of the representatives of the Western and Eastern countries calls for the possible revisions of the traditional definition of creativity as a construct emphasizing originality in thinking. Although originality and innovation are inherent properties of creative behavior in the Western thought, it might have lesser value in the East.

The research reported in this article was partially supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (No. BCS-0414013). I thank Polina Tilei and Maria Gantman in the United States, Pegah Foudeh in Iran, and my colleagues at Russian State University for the Humanities who provided invaluable help with data collection. Special thanks go to Emma-Marie Walker for her helpful comments and proofreading of the manuscript.

Notes

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