This article, like many other science articles, follows this template:<p>People have long suspected that <extremely general conclusion involving vaguely-defined terms with complex meanings, like 'intelligence', 'love', 'creativity', 'belief'>. But now scientists have proved it. <Description of experiment, in which some simple test is used as a substitute for the trait in question - either a psych test, or an MRI, or something - and middle class North Americans are used as a substitute for humanity>.<p>I find these articles really tiresome.
"To check that they had not merely discovered that creative people are more likely to choose to live abroad, Dr Maddux and Dr Galinsky identified and measured personality traits, such as openness to new experiences, that are known to predict creativity."<p>Is this what passes for controls these days? It'd be much smarter to test people right before they're about to go abroad.
People who live outside the country are already outliers to begin with. Only 20% of Americans even have a passport.<p>(I knew a woman who was in her mid-30s that had never been outside the state of Pennsylvania; her first trip to NYC was at the age of 33.)
Ok, they filtered out for some known factors that encourage creativity... but we barely know how creativity works, so how can they know for sure they've filtered for all the factors?<p>To me, it seems that it's as likely there's a factor they don't know about, as that their hypothesis holds (i.e. living abroad causes creativity).
The article sounds more like reaching a predetermined conclusion, rather than research.<p>"Nevertheless, where both negotiators had lived abroad 70% struck a deal in which the seller was offered a management job at the petrol station in return for a lower asking price. When neither of the negotiators had lived abroad, none was able to reach a deal."<p>Struck me as incredibly obvious, in the few seconds between the presentation of the situation and the solution, and I have never lived abroad, and don't usually consider myself all that creative.
Living abroad gave me a suntan and a bit of perspective, but honestly, I don't feel any more creative than when I left the States.<p>That said, it's pretty good out here and the dollar is crazy strong right now. I'd hop a flight if I were you!
However, although this article itself might not prove much, when I was doing some research I came across this study which had found a link between eminent scientists and immigrants. I think it might be the cultural shock which perhaps forces the individual to once more learn the basics, i.e. customs, traditions, how to behave and of course language.