Effects of plurilingualism and pluriculturalism on creativity: testing the mediating role of tolerance and intolerance of ambiguity

This study continued a project aiming at empirically investigating the Plurilingual Creativity paradigm. It looked at the mediating role of tolerance and intolerance of ambiguity in the relation between plurilingualism/pluriculturalism and creativity. To test the research hypotheses, we recruited 261 participants using a simple random sampling technique. Participants were invited to respond to assessments of language repertoire (measured by the number of languages spoken by participants and overall proficiency in these languages), multicultural experience (measured by the Multicultural Experience Questionnaire), intercultural competence (measured by the Integrative Intercultural Competence Survey), and divergent thinking (measured by Unusual Uses test). A series of mediation analyses revealed that although both mediators were likely to mediate the link between plurilingualism/pluriculturalism and creativity, intolerance of ambiguity acted as a more potent mediator of this link. Specifically, tolerance of ambiguity mediated the link between multicultural experience and divergent thinking. Intolerance of ambiguity mediated the links between divergent thinking and language repertoire, intercultural competence, and multicultural experience, respectively. These findings suggested that plurilingual/pluricultural experience may primarily influence creative thinking by reducing the fear of an ambiguous situation. The findings emphasised the importance of considering personality related factors in the relation between plurilingualism/pluriculturalism and creativity.