Living abroad gives individuals greater creativity in problem solving, according to a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
[...] William Maddux of INSEAD, a business school in Fontainebleau, France, and Adam Galinsky, of the Kellogg School of Management in Chicago, presented 155 American business students and 55 foreign ones studying in America with a test used by psychologists as a measure of creativity. Given a candle, some matches and a box of drawing pins, the students were asked to attach the candle to a cardboard wall so that no wax would drip on the floor when the candle was lit. (The solution is to use the box as a candleholder and fix it to the wall with the pins.) They found 60% of students who were either living abroad or had spent some time doing so, solved the problem, whereas only 42% of those who had not lived abroad did so.
As it turns out, it's not just that more creative people are more likely to live abroad; the study's authors controlled for personality traits that are known to predict creativity, leading them to conclude that "it is something from the experience of living in foreign parts that helps foster creativity." Finally - statistical justification of my chosen path of existence!
You can find the complete study findings here.
[HT: Freakanomics]