Conservatism Negatively Predicts Creativity: A Study Across 28 Countries

Agata Groyecka-Bernard*, Piotr Sorokowski, Maciej Karwowski, S. Craig Roberts, Toivo Aavik, Grace Akello, Charlotte Alm, Naumana Amjad, Kelly Asao, Chiemezie S. Atama, Derya Atamtürk Duyar, Richard Ayebare, Carlota Batres, Aicha Bensafia, Anna Bertoni, Boris Bizumic, Mahmoud Boussena, David M. Buss, Marina Butovskaya, Seda CanAntonin Carrier, Hakan Cetinkaya, Daniel Conroy-Beam, Marco Antonio Correa Varella, Ilona Croy, Rosa María Cueto, Marta Czerwonka, Marcin Czub, Silvia Donato, Daria Dronova, Seda Dural, Izzet Duyar, Berna Ertugrul, Agustín Espinosa, Carla Sofia Esteves, Tomasz Frackowiak, Aleksandra Gajda, Marta Galewska-Kustra, Jorge Contreras Graduño, Farida Guemaz, Ivana Hromatko, Chin Ming Hui, Iskra Herak, Raffaella Iafrate, Jas Laile Jaafar, Dorota M. Jankowska, Feng Jiang, Konstantinos Kafetsios, Tina Kavčič, Nicolas O. Kervyn, Nils C. Köbis, Izabela Lebuda, Georgina R. Lennard, Ernesto León, Torun Lindholm, Mohammad Madallh Alhabahba, Zoi Manesi, Sarah L. McKerchar, Girishwar Misra, Conal Monaghan, Emanuel C. Mora, Alba Moya-Garófano, Bojan Musil, Jean Carlos Natividade, George Nizharadze, Elisabeth Oberzaucher, Anna Oleszkiewicz, Mohd Sofian Omar Fauzee, Ike E. Onyishi, Baris Özener, Farid Pazhoohi, Mariia Perun, Annette Pisanski, Katarzyna Pisanski, Edna Lúcia Tinoco Ponciano, Camelia Popa, Pavol Prokop, Muhammad Rizwan, Svjetlana Salkičević, Susanne Schmehl, Oksana Senyk, Shivantika Sharad, Franco Simonetti, Meri Tadinac, Karina Ugalde González, Olha Uhryn, Christin Melanie Vauclair, Diego Vega, Ewa Weremczuk-Marczyńska, Dwi Ajeng Widarini, Gyesook Yoo, Maja Zupančič, Afifa Anjum, Anam Shahid, Agnieszka Sorokowska

*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

Previous studies have found a negative relationship between creativity and conservatism. However, as these studies were mostly conducted on samples of homogeneous nationality, the generalizability of the effect across different cultures is unknown. We addressed this gap by conducting a study in 28 countries. Based on the notion that attitudes can be shaped by both environmental and ecological factors, we hypothesized that parasite stress can also affect creativity and thus, its potential effects should be controlled for. The results of multilevel analyses showed that, as expected, conservatism was a significant predictor of lower creativity, adjusting for economic status, age, sex, education level, subjective susceptibility to disease, and country-level parasite stress. In addition, most of the variability in creativity was due to individual rather than country-level variance. Our study provides evidence for a weak but significant negative link between conservatism and creativity at the individual level (β = −0.08, p <.001) and no such effect when country-level conservatism was considered. We present our hypotheses considering previous findings on the behavioral immune system in humans.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)368-385
Number of pages18
JournalJournal of Cross-Cultural Psychology
Volume55
Issue number4
Early online date2 Apr 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2024

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Social Psychology
  • Cultural Studies
  • Anthropology

Keywords

  • behavioral immune system
  • conservatism
  • creativity
  • cross-cultural
  • liberalism
  • parasite stress
  • TCT-DP

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