The effects of cosmopolitan culture, competitiveness, and need for cognitive closure on creativity

• Main Author: CHENG, Chi-Ying
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2015
• Subjects: Multiculturalism; Creativity; Need for Cognitive Closure; Kiasu; Competitiveness; Industrial and Organizational Psychology; Psychology
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2035; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/3292/viewcontent/EffectsOfCosmopolitanCulture.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Deviant from thecurrent literature of multiculturalism-creativity link, this paper investigateswhether individuals benefit from exposure to one but diverse culture as well asthe moderators for this relationship. Drawing upon knowledge activation theory, Study 1found that individuals raised in a diverse culture like Singapore exhibithigher creativity when primed with their culture than in the control conditions. However, this advantage disappearswhen the Singaporean cultural tendency “Kiasu”, also known as extremecompetitiveness, is recalled when individuals are primed with their culture.Study 2 further examined how the Kiasu prime, personal Kiasu tendency, and needfor cognitive closure (NFCC) interact to influence creativity. The resultsshowed that when the Kiasu mindset is primed, individual Kiasu tendencyinteracts with NFCC to influence creativity. However, when the Kiasu mindset isnot primed, only individual Kiasu tendency influences creativity. Thesefindings broaden the current understanding of how different type ofmulticultural experience benefits creativity.