Cultural Barriers

I found this section to be very interesting, as it shows how different cultures are blocked from creativity. Five cultural barriers include a requirement for conformity, an expectation of politeness and following rules for social order, a reliance on statistical proofs, a trust in the power of reason and logic, and a reliance on expert knowledge.
Two cultural barriers stood out as key blockers to creative thinking: a requirement for conformity, and a reliance on expert knowledge. A requirement for conformity can inhibit a culture from being creative by not allowing those individuals to be different. If everyone has to conform to the same rules, and the same ways of thinking, then it’s going to be very difficult to think outside of the box. It’s as if thinking differently will bring embarrassment to the culture. Often time those who are different are shunned away for not following the rules. Often time, alternative thinking is what sets people apart.
A reliance on expert knowledge does not offer anyone motivation for improvement or alternative answers. If we are taught to rely on the same answer for every problem, then we might not seek a different answer that could be closer to fact. If for example we always rely on newspapers for our information, then motivation for an alternative truth will not be there. We should be encouraged to go to the library to do further research, or talk to others to see what they have to say. I think that there is not one answer to anything; we are taught that there is only one answer.