Title: Frontiers | How Does Culture Shape Creativity? A Mini-Review | Psychology
Headings: How Does Culture Shape Creativity? A Mini-Review
How Does Culture Shape Creativity? A Mini-Review
Introduction
Culture Underwrites the Definitions of Creativity
Culture Underwrites Creative Processes
Culture Underwrites the Assessment of Creativity
Concluding Remarks
Author Contributions
Funding
Conflict of Interest Statement
References

Content: Creativity is deeply rooted in all cultures, but its definition and attributes vary across cultures. According to the literature, the dichotomy of “the West” and “the East” is one of the most influential approaches in characterizing (potential cultural) differences in understanding and defining creativity. “ The East” commonly refers to Asian countries, especially East Asian countries such as China and other countries influenced by its culture, such as Japan or Korea; they possess general similarities in social and cultural aspects that differ from those of “Western” countries. The mentioned countries are often considered to largely represent “collectivist cultures” (i.e., cultures that emphasize that collective interests should override individuals’ interests and that fitting in with the collective is more important than being unique) and share a similar tradition that traces its origin from Asian thought, such as Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. In contrast, “the West,” although usually considered to reflect “individualist cultures” (i.e., those that value the individual’s goals and interests over the group’s collective interests and goals; Xie and Paik, 2019 ), usually refers to the US, Western Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, which are closely linked to ancient Greece and the ideas of Christianity, Judaism, and rationality ( Weiner, 2000; see Dubina and Ramos, 2016 ). The plausibility of such clustering of the East and the West has been substantially supported by several large-scale studies, such as the World Value Survey ( Inglehart et al., 1998) and the GLOBE project survey ( House et al.,