Cultural diversity and creativity

Abstract

Cultural diversity refers to the extent of cultural differences that exist between people. The first part of our chapter discusses the influence that diversity has on creative processes. Historiometric, cross-sectional and experimental work supports the idea that, under the right circumstances, individual experiences of diversity can increase creative potential. Studies on group and team creativity paint a more complex picture, suggesting that group diversity can sometimes help and sometimes hinder creative performance. We also discuss the issue of cross-cultural differences in creativity and suggest that further work is needed to better understand what aspects of creativity are shared, and what aspects of creativity are different across cultures.