Are All Diversity Ideologies Creatively Equal? The Diverging Consequences of Colorblindness, Multiculturalism, and Polyculturalism

Abstract

In three studies, we examined how diversity ideologies can differentially affect creativity. Building on past research establishing that embracing foreign ideas contributes to creativity in problem solving, we predicted that diversity ideologies would have consequences for cultural creativity through their differential impact on how people would make use of foreign knowledge. We found that colorblindness (the ethos of disregarding cultural differences) was associated with lower cultural creativity through reduced inclusion of foreign ideas. Polyculturalism (the ethos of fostering intercultural interaction) was associated with higher cultural creativity through greater inclusion of foreign ideas. Finally, we found that classical multiculturalism (the ethos of preserving separate cultural traditions) had no effects on creative problem solving. Results held across different populations of participants (Americans, Israelis), different measures of creativity (flexibility, novelty), and different ways of probing ideologies (individual differences, experimental priming). These results indicate that diversity ideologies not only affect how people treat foreign people but also how they treat foreign ideas, with implications for their creativity.

Automated content analysis of cultural Diversity Perspectives in Annual Reports (DivPAR): Development, validation, and future research agenda.

“…First, on the individual level , diversity perspectives may be related to a myriad of employee outcomes. A growing body of literature focuses on how different diversity approaches and strategies, such as multiculturalism/colorblindness (Cho et al, 2018; Jansen et al, 2016; Plaut et al, 2009) or value-in-diversity beliefs (Bader et al, 2019; Hofhuis et al, 2012; Hofhuis, van der Zee, et al, 2016; van Knippenberg et al, 2013) affect job satisfaction, inclusion, and career opportunities of cultural majority and minority employees. To date, however, little research has examined Ely and Thomas’ (2001) perspectives in this regard.…”

Creativity and aging: Positive consequences of distraction.

“…In a procedure adapted from Cheng et al (2008) and Cho et al (2018), recipes were scored by two judges who self-identified as "cooking connoisseurs" and were blind to the hypotheses and conditions. Judges received written instructions on how to rate the dishes, and approximately one third of the recipes generated by both younger adults and older adults were coded during an initial training session.…”

“…They were also told that in each recipe, they had to include at least one of the three ingredients. This task has been used to assess creativity in previously published studies within psychology, management, and computer engineering (e.g., Cheng et al, 2008; Cho, Tadmor, & Morris, 2018; Chua, 2013; Pinel & Varshney, 2014). Following the recipe generation task, participants completed questions about their demographic characteristics and were debriefed and dismissed.…”

Economic Consciousness In A Multicultural Society. Evidence From South Ural And Khakassia

“…There is a certain lack of studies on multicultural societies and, more specifically, on the peculiarities of economic consciousness of the people who live in these societies. There is a piece of evidence, which proves that multicultural societies have specific characteristics as opposed to monocultural societies, such as more cultural creativity due to the inclusion of foreign ideas (Cho et al, 2018), different attitudes towards innovation within oneself (Grigoryan et al, 2018), less negative and more positive intergroup and political attitudes (Rosenthal et al, 2015). A multicultural society is characterized by the concept of polymentality (Zakharova, 2012), which is considered as systemic integrity, whose individual structures contain qualitative differences in lifestyles, mindset, worldview, spiritual values, standards of behavior of ethnic and confessional communities in the country.…”