ABSTRACT
In most countries in which I have worked, granting agencies and university administrators have encouraged research to be interdisciplinary. Although the motives underlying this preference have never been clearly stated, I had the strong impression that it was based on the assumption that forcing researchers out of their “disciplinary ghettos” would somehow improve the quality of their research and increase the likelihood of innovative outcomes. I assume that this type of assumption also justified the foundation of interdisciplinary meeting places such as the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies or the Center for the Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences. Because many of the chapters in this book will be similarly optimistic about interdisciplinary research, I would like to address the question of whether conducting research in an interdisciplinary setting is likely to stimulate the creativity of the researchers involved in such endeavors.
