Deductive reasoning and creativity: a cross-cultural study.
The present cross-cultural study examined the relationship between deductive reasoning and creativity among college students (M age=20.4 yr., SD= .6) from Hong Kong (n=39) and the United States (n=38). Participants performed tasks designed to measure deductive reasoning, creative writing, and insight problem-solving, all in verbal form. No correlation was found between the performance for deductive reasoning and creativity as measured by creative writing. Insight problem-solving performance correlated significantly with that for both reasoning and creativity. Significant cultural differences favoring the American participants were only found on the creative writing and insight problem-solving tasks, both of which supposedly involve creative thinking. There seems to be cultural dependence for creativity but not for deductive reasoning which suggests a qualification of a strong cultural-relevance view positing pervasive cultural influences on human thinking processes.
Niu
Weihua
W
Department of Psychology, Pace University, 41 Park Row, New York 10038, USA. wniu@pace.edu
Zhang
John X
JX
Yang
Yingrui
Y
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003405:Creativity; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006723:Hong Kong; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013334:Students / Q000706:statistics & numerical data