Culturally Adapting Simonton’s Creativity Framework: Assessing Japanese Creativity through Shinto, Buddhism, and Confucianism

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 11:45 am - Gold 3
  In Roundtable Session: Culture and Tradition Across Societies

Abstract

Creativity is normally measured by Western-biased frameworks, which fail to recognize the richness of non-Western cultures (Barth & Stadtmann, 2024; Glăveanu, 2019; Karwowski, 2016). Accordingly, we adapt Simonton’s (2012a, 2012b) creativity model to reflect Japanese cultural values from Shinto, Buddhism, and Confucianism. Those cultures encourage a unique creativity that is more useful, surprising and harmonious than extremely new. We propose a culturally weighted alternative: C = a₁ × O × a₂ × U × a₃ × S, with O = originality; U = utility, S = surprise and a₂ > a₃ > a₁. The approach presents a culturally sensitive foundation for quantifying creativity and sets new ground for exploring cross-cultural comparison of the conceptualization and expression of creativity.

Authors

• Minh N. Kim, The George Washington University

• Manh Tuan Kim, Vietnam National University