The relationship between intercultural competence and prosocial and antisocial creativity in Russian students

 
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Abstract

Context and Relevance. Intercultural competence is one of the key competencies that modern universities cultivate in their students. Its high level is associated not only with more effective intercultural interaction but can also stimulate creativity. However, creativity should be considered not only in terms of originality but also in the context of its social orientation.
Objective. To identify the relationship between intercultural competence and prosocial and antisocial creativity in students at Russian universities.
Materials and methods. The study involved 214 undergraduate and graduate students from Russian universities (M = 21,99; SD = 3,47, 83,65% women). The study questionnaire included the Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS), the Malevolent Creativity Behavior Scale (MCBS), and the Positive Creativity Engagement Scale. The representation of students from other cultures in the study group and the relationship between educational profile and intercultural communication were also recorded.
Results. The results showed that the motivational and behavioral components of intercultural competence were positively associated with prosocial creativity; the metacognitive component was negatively associated with antisocial creativity in the form of lying, and the behavioral component was negatively associated with antisocial creativity in the form of harm, but at the level of a statistical trend.
Conclusions. Specific relationships between the components of intercultural competence and student creativity were identified. While they can serve as a resource for supporting prosocial creativity, antisocial creativity is not reducible to a competency deficit and requires consideration of additional factors.

General Information

Keywords: intercultural competence, prosocial creativity, antisocial creativity, cultural intelligence, students

Journal rubric: Empirical Research

Article type: scientific article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/sps.2026170308

Funding. The study was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (RSF), project number 25-18-00544, the project theme is "Sociocultural and Personal Determinants and Functions of Creativity", https://rscf.ru/project/25-18-00544.

Received 13.07.2026

Revised 30.07.2026

Accepted

Published

For citation: Vyshelesskaya, M.A., Bultseva, M.A. (2026). The relationship between intercultural competence and prosocial and antisocial creativity in Russian students. Social Psychology and Society, 17(3), 127–144. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.17759/sps.2026170308

© Vyshelesskaya M.A., Bultseva M.A., 2026

License: CC BY-NC 4.0

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Information About the Authors

Maria . Vyshelesskaya, Master’s student, Applied Social Psychology program, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-0545-6300, e-mail: mavyshelesskaia@edu.hse.ru

Mariya A. Bultseva, Candidate of Science (Psychology), Research Fellow, Centre for Sociocultural Research, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5899-9916, e-mail: mbultseva@hse.ru

Contribution of the authors

Vyshelesskaya M.A. — research ideas; annotation and manuscript writing; study planning; data collection;
study supervision.
Bultseva M.A. — application of statistical, mathematical, and other methods for data analysis; visualization
of research results; editing and formatting of the manuscript.
All authors participated in the discussion of the results and approved the final text of the manuscript.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Ethics statement

All participants completed the form of informed consent before their involvement.

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