The effects of plurilingualism and pluriculturalism on divergent thinking: testing the moderating role of personality traits

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study continued an in-depth investigation of the Plurilingual Creativity paradigm. It examined how Big Five personality traits moderated the relationship between plurilingualism/pluriculturalism and creativity. Data collection included assessments of plurilingual experience (measured by the abridged version of the Multilingual and Multicultural Experience Questionnaire), multicultural experience and desire (measured by the Multicultural Experience Questionnaire), intercultural competence (measured by Integrative Intercultural Competence Survey), and divergent thinking (measured by Unusual Uses test). A series of regression analyses using moderation models obtained evidence that neuroticism interacted with the plurilingual index (composed of the number of languages spoken by participants and their overall language proficiency), contributing to flexibility in divergent thinking. Extraversion interacted with the intercultural competence component, namely the management of intercultural interaction, contributing to fluency, flexibility, and originality in divergent thinking. It also interacted with multicultural experience in contributing to fluency. These findings emphasized the importance of considering personality traits in plurilingual creativity.