Conservatism Negatively Predicts Creativity: A Study Across 28 Countries

Summary

This cross-cultural study revisited the reported negative link between conservatism and creativity, which earlier work had largely established within single, culturally homogeneous samples. The authors collected data across 28 countries to test whether the association generalises across diverse cultural settings. Using multilevel modelling, they examined whether conservatism predicted lower creativity while adjusting for economic status, age, sex, education, subjective disease susceptibility, and country-level pathogen prevalence. Conservatism significantly predicted lower creativity across the pooled international sample. The results suggest the conservatism–creativity relationship is robust and not merely an artefact of any particular national context.