Clutter causes creativity

Clutter causes creativity - what??

Researchers at the University of Minnesota in America say that people in messy environments are more creative than those in a tidy environments. What? Clutter causes creativity!

Kathleen Vohs, a marketing professor at the University of Minnesota, conducted a study with 48 participants (Wired, February 26, 2016). The participants entered two rooms: (1) a messy room (with loose papers and pens around the desk and floor), and (2) a tidy room. Each participant was given a creativity test.

The results showed that the participants who worked at a messy desk in a messy room – with lots of clutter – were 28% more creative than the particpants who worked in a tidy room.

Vohs thinks that ‘when things are tidy, people adhere more to what’s expected of them. When things are messier, they break free from norms.’ Does that mean that a clean (empty desk) leads to an empty mind?

Authors of The Myth of the Paperless Office, Abigail Sellen and Richard Harper, documented a worker with a cluttered laboratory who could find any document needed in a few seconds. Hence some messy room owners have their own ‘organizational strategy’ for finding things.

However, not all clutter causes creativity. Marketing professor, Grace Chae, at Temple University found that when people worked in a clean office they were far more likely to persist with a difficult task than those who worked in a messy office. Vohs, in her study, also found that people behaved slightly better in a neat room. They gave more to charity (when offered a chance to do so) and they ate more healthy foods (choosing apples instead of chocolate).

So clutter causes creativity, but it drains people of willpower and social etiquette. Tidiness reduces the imagination, but it helps people to act on their ideas and continue a task for longer, with more focus on it.

I just have to have a clean desk, otherwise I’m too distracted. But I do like pictures, photographs, and mementos that spark inspiration and creativity – such as a picture of William Shakespeare, maps, postcards, and my new addition this year – Puck, my wooden red monkey. But cafes, strolls through natural reserves, and beach views help too.

http://www.wired.com/2016/02/clive-thompson-13/

MARTINA NICOLLS is the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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