The Impact of Culture on the Creative Potential of American, Russian, and Iranian College Students

This study presents evidence for the impact of sociocultural environment on creative potential. The divergent thinking performance of American, Russian, and Iranian college students was compared on the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults. The study revealed that, compared to the Iranians, Americans and Russians have superior abilities to consider a problem from different perspectives and to generate original solutions to a problem. The performance differences on the originality measure of the representatives of the Western and Eastern countries calls for the possible revisions of the traditional definition of creativity as a construct emphasizing originality in thinking. Although originality and innovation are inherent properties of creative behavior in the Western thought, it might have lesser value in the East.