Research has shown that by experiencing another country’s culture when working or when you study abroad actually makes you smarter, flexible, complex and creative. But how is this so? A study led by William Maddux, organizational behaviour expert, found that students who were  more open minded and had developed an adaptive attitude towards cultures in foreign countries were able to connect disparate ideas much better.

Maddux also writes “People who have international experience or identify with more than one nationality are better problem solvers and display more creativity, our research suggests. What’s more, we found that people with this international experience are more likely to create new businesses and products and to be promoted.”

These students also received more job offers after finishing their business programs than students that hadn’t.

Singapore Management University’s Psychology associate professor Angela Leung also researched the psychological effects of studying and living abroad. It was found that people with more cultural experiences were able to create inventive ideas while making more links amongst unexpected concepts.

It was also found that the living abroad experiences of those who were willing to adapt to their host country’s culture were much more positive and successful than those who showed an unwillingness to understand or try to integrate into the host country’s culture. The former group of people demonstrated more flexibility with ease in building relationships with people of diverse backgrounds.

So overall, working and studying abroad can make you much better thinkers as well as more creative and flexible, because as a student abroad you have learnt the advantages that come with this attitude toward the cultures outside of your own.