Unpacking Plurilingual Creativity: How Motivation Mediates the Link Between Pluriculturalism and Divergent Thinking

Abstract This study aimed to test how individuals’ motivational characteristics may mediate the relations of plurilingualism/pluriculturalism with divergent thinking. Two hundred sixty-one individuals were recruited using a simple random sampling method. Data collection included assessments of plurilingual experience (measured by the abridged version of Multilingual and Multicultural Experience Questionnaire), multicultural experience and desire (measured by Multicultural Experience Questionnaire), intercultural competence (measured by Integrative Intercultural Competence Survey), motivational characteristics (measured by The Scale for Rating Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students), and divergent thinking (measured by Unusual Uses test). Regression analyses using mediation models demonstrated that motivational characteristics mediate the association between intercultural competence and divergent thinking components. Motivational characteristics also mediate between multicultural experience/desire and divergent thinking components. By introducing motivational characteristics as a mediating factor, these findings can further explain the underlying mechanism of plurilingual creativity.