Towards a science of complex experiences: Diversifying experiences in real life. New discoveries and caveats!

Dear All,

have you ever experienced something so strange, unique, surprising exceptional or, simply, so different from the daily routine to feel somehow “touched” by the experience itself?

I guess the answer will be yes and the examples would be many. From meeting the love of your life, to the birth of a new child, to the view of aurora borealis, to several episodes of bullism but successfully overcome, to the death of a beloved..These could be called “Diversifying experiences (DE)” (Damian & Simonton, 2014).

Life always sends us this kind of surprises. However, everytime something really unexpected challenge our mental schema, we are required to put a significant effort to make sense out of this “chaos” generated by the violation of what we though to know till that moment.

So, all significantly unexpected events are Diversifying experiences? Oh, no! There are some circumstances under which an unexpected, unusual event can become a DE:

(i) Some cognitive violation is needed. I mean, it is not necessary to move from Italy to Japan without a job and without knowing a single word of Japanese 🙂 It would be enough to be exposed to some kinds of elementary violations, something that could be done also in Virtual Reality or in reality. For instance, Ritter et al. (2012) created scenarios in which logic of physics was violated (e.g., a fallen glass lifting instead of shattering into thousand pieces) either involving participants actively [through a virtual reality (VR) simulation] or passively (through a movie). Also, in Ritter et al. (2014) individuals were not directly engaged into specific paradoxical action plans but when they identified with other individuals realizing paradoxical actions..so just observing something weird can be a starting point to generated a DE. But what’s needed more?

(ii) A specific appraisal of the situation. Appraising a situation as a challenge, instead of as a threat would more likely lead to a DE..It means that we do not feel just overwhelmed and defeated. Instead, we feel that we have enough skills, energies to face the event..(Gocłowska et al., 2018).

(iii) Moving forward. Surprise and challenge are not enough to lead to a DE. We should also perceive the experience positively. Being motivated to look for more information, connecting even distant ideas and process more data should be the key (Gocłowska et al., 2018).

(iv) Also, the body. Some body-related violations could foster cognitive flexibility as a preliminary  (Huang and Galinsky, 2011).

(v) Individual differences. We do not react the same way to the same violations. Some people with lower need for fixed structure and higher openness to experience are more likely to build upon schema violation towards a DE. Those higher in the former and lower in the latter would “resist” to the violation and, to some extent, also refuse it..

check out our article: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01396/full

Why caring so much about DE? Well, nothing so relevant..they just BOOST your creativity, specifically you creative thinking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After a DE, people can connect even distance concepts more easily, flexibility and generate new usable ideas.

Now that we have captured your attention, please, keep on reading how we further check whether even a real-life DE, and not an artificial one created in the lab, could do the same, could foster creativity..

We relied on a special case of real-life DE, the one created by the Institute of Blinds in Milan, which is a renowned format called “Dialogue in the Dark“.

Just imagine to live as a blind person…no light but still all activities you are accustomed to there, to be done…walking, doing happy hour, talking with other people in a park…

And now, imagine the same activities carried out in the presence of light.

These were the two experimental conditions which our participants undergone. Just one condition for each participant.

Our research question was simple: Does “Dialogue in the Dark” as a DE boost creative thinking?

Not exactly!

Creativity scores were significantly higher in the condition in which light was present! People who carried out activities in the presence of light were more creative immediately after the experience compared to the other participants who carried out the same activities but in the absence of light.

However, the “Dialogue in the Dark” was a really DE compared to the other one. It was perceived positively and as a challenge. And, we know that DE requires effort to be integrated into our current mental schema..thus, more time would be needed to capture the impact of this DE on creativity…

Did you see? We already have another research question.

 

Lesson learnt: if you challenged by life, take some time to understand and look the beyond. Then, go to try “Dialogue in the Dark”!

 

 

When you find a new home..

Sometimes we have to move far from our home. We feel lonely, overwhelmed by many new things we are not able to grasp entirely. That’s when nostalgia starts.

It is not bad. It just reminds us where we are from, but it should never stop us from embracing the new life, the new experience we are living. Old is good when allows meeting a new present.

I told myself these words during these first few days in Philly. I have to confess that I had the great opportunity to stay in a family. And what a family!

I will remember them for the rest of my life (I am still in contact with them and hope to meet them again soon in the next few days). The mother is a force of nature. She is Italian and she has spent a lot of time with me teaching me how to live here. I have seen rarely such a sincere and genuine attention towards other people. Her husband is one of the most patient, authentic, passionate, and family-lover man I have ever seen. Their three kids have changed my idea of family at all. Even the 3-year old showed an independence that I guess we could never meet in our country, if considering same-aged boys. The other two girls the same. They are a team first of all. They are full of passion for what they do, and can instill enthusiasm in all people surrounding them.

THEY ARE!!!

I have always been skeptical about having a family. However, now, I see that there are many other possible models to follow. This has been my “family-diversifying experience” (i.e., an unusual experience deeply impacting on our life). It doesn’t mean I want children or related stuff right now. I can just see things from a different perspective.

I’ll let D.K. Simonton talk about what Diversifying Experiences are..

There are researchers spending their entire life to study the effecs of experiences abroad on life-change and creative ability. I am one of those, but I have never experienced what I studied. This has turned everything into a different light to me. Could it be the beginning of my diversifying experience?

Love