Harnessing Diversity: Majority-Group Acculturation Predicts Creativity and Flourishing Over Time

Creativity and flourishing are core aims of higher education (HE) institutions and government initiatives worldwide. Large-scale projects have linked creativity and flourishing with cultural diversity, yet their associations with majority-group acculturation (i.e., how members of dominant culture groups adopt minority-cultural elements and/or maintain their national culture) remain unexplored. We tested relationships between majority-group acculturation and seven components of creativity and flourishing in UK (Study 1, N = 323) and Chinese (Study 2, N = 174) majority-group university students and a three-wave, English majority-group longitudinal sample (Study 3, N at Time 1 = 219). Results found integration (i.e., adopting other cultures while maintaining one’s own) predicted higher cognitive flexibility (Study 1), meaning-in-life (Studies 1 and 2) and quality of interpersonal relationships (Studies 1 and 2), while cultural adoption predicted higher cognitive flexibility, curiosity-exploration and flourishing over time (Study 3). Overall, majority-group acculturation was associated with key outcome priorities of HE and government institutions.