Mobile and Creative

by Richard Florida

Patrick points to the Economist's synopsis of  this new study of the relationship between living abroad and creativity. Creative people are curious by nature. There is a also a close connection between creativity and experience seeking - in psychology speak, open-to-experience personalities; and open personalities are more likely than others to move. Creative people constantly - and chronically - seek out new experiences, they are also frequent movers. That said, the study is careful to point out that:

[C]urrent studies cannot rule out the reverse pathway: that creative people may be more likely to live abroad than noncreative people, a plausible possibility that we noted in the introduction. However, although we acknowledge that creative people may indeed be especially likely to live abroad, we believe that the effects of living abroad are not simply a proxy for creative personality, and that our results suggest the experience of living abroad seems to be important in and of itself.