Researchers have evaluated what people from different cultures categorize as creative. Data were gathered from people living in Russia and the United Arab Emirates. Kharkhurin and colleagues found that “The concept of creativity varies by culture. Creative daring appears to be a key feature of creativity in the Western, but not in the Eastern tradition. In the Western understanding, creativity implies originality, novelty and uniqueness, for the sake of which previous canons can be rejected. The Eastern concept of creativity is based on the ability to creatively interpret existing traditions (and on giving equal importance on the aesthetic side).”
“Portrait of an Alien.” 2022. Press release, HSE University, https://iq.hse.ru/en/news/551331486.html
Sally Augustin, PhD, a cognitive scientist, is the editor of Research Design Connections (www.researchdesignconnections.com), a monthly subscription newsletter and free daily blog, where recent and classic research in the social, design, and physical sciences that can inform designers’ work are presented in straightforward language. Readers learn about the latest research findings immediately, before they’re available elsewhere. Sally, who is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, is also the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychology for Interior Architecture (Wiley, 2009) and, with Cindy Coleman, The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design (Wiley, 2012). She is a principal at Design with Science (www.designwithscience.com) and can be reached at sallyaugustin@designwithscience.com.