Five barriers to creativity

There are a lot of cultural barriers to creativity. Some of the ones I can think of:

1) Race. Sometimes when we are in a mixed race group, we expect certain races to say or do things a certain way. When they do something different, we might discredit them because we think they don't have the experience or cultural background to have proper insight on the subject.

2) Gender. This one is similar to race and probably occurs a lot more than gender. If you are in a group with only one woman, you probably look to her for the "female point of view." Similarly, if you are trying to brainstorm about something geared towards males, there is a probable chance that her ideas won't get as much attention because the rest of the guys will think she doesn't know what she is talking about.

3) Age. Similar to race and gender, age gets a lot of stereotypes and therefore has a lot of cultural boundaries. A lot of older people in classes I'm in seem to back off when we talk about technology or something that has to do with Internet or computers. While they probably have good ideas, they always back off and let the younger people brainstorm and talk more.

4) Pop culture. If you are in a group and a few people are able to bond over music or movie, you probably notice that they are going to come up with their own ideas and act as a mini-group.

5) Being embarrassed / fear of rejection. A lot of times, people don't speak their mind because they are afraid people will laugh or perceive their idea as ridiculous. When it comes to creativity, there is really no right or wrong at the brainstorming stage. Sure some things sound better than others, and in the physical stages of trying out an idea you can see what works and what doesn't, but when you are brainstorming, any reasonable idea is a good one.