Why Traveling Abroad Makes Us More Creative

I´m soon going for a one week holiday, just to get some more sun. I guess that can´t be bad for my creativity, and at least it can give me new inspiration and a shift of environment for a while.

I found this blog post on the subject, written by Sam McNerney

http://bigthink.com/insights-of-genius/why-traveling-abroad-makes-us-more-creative

He writes:

Given the importance of traveling abroad, it’s no surprise that psychologists study how these experiences affect our cognition. Do they make us smarter or more open-minded? Does learning a foreign language boost IQ? Is it a good idea to live outside of your native country for a while? Consider a study conducted by Lile Jia and his colleagues at Indiana University.

In one experiment the team of psychologists asked participants to list as many different modes of transportation as possible. They explained that the task was created by either Indiana University students studying in Greece (distant condition) or by Indiana University students studying in Indiana (near condition). This small ripple turned out to have large effects: participants in the distant condition generated more modes of transportation and were more original with their ideas....

McNerney mentions different studies that shows a coherence between creativity and different kinds of traveling. Go to that link above to see more.