Distant baloney

The study:
http://bigthink.com/insights-of-genius/why-traveling-abroad-makes-us-more-creative-part-ii

Thanks to Julie Threlkeld at Races Like a Girl (http://raceslikeagirl.com/) for sharing this on Facebook.

Julie's post and her pullquote:

I've read this six times and I'm totally confused by the third sentence. My head is about to explode.

Recent experiments out of Indiana University demonstrate complementary results. In one study, professor Lile Jia and his colleagues asked participants to list as many different modes of transportation as possible. Here was the twist: they told half of the participants that Indiana University students studying in Greece (distant condition) created the task; the other half were told Indiana University students studying in Indiana (near condition) were the creators. Jia and his team found that participants in the distant condition generated more modes of transportation and were more original with their ideas – even “psychological distance” boosts creativity.

The study:
http://bigthink.com/insights-of-genius/why-traveling-abroad-makes-us-more-creative-part-ii

I decoded the method section and explained it to Julie's satisfaction on Facebook.

I cannot see how the authors of this study think it was about ANYTHING. Every measure and manipulation is arbitrary. Why just transport? Why just Greece? It is not clear to me how thinking of modes of anything is a creative task. It is a generative one. And, it is obvious to me that when one has a foreign country in mind, especially one known for seafaring and rusticisity, one's tendency to think of boats, donkeys and perhaps camels, in addition to cars and trucks, goes right up through the roof. So what.