Culture and Society
PUBLISHED
Well, research suggests having a messy desk has its benefits – but so does a tidy one. While a Mary-Quando style approach to your working environment may indicate higher levels of generosity and conscientiousness, taking a more relaxed attitude to tidiness may result in higher levels of creativity and innovative thinking. At least, that was the conclusion of a paper published in Psychological Science in 2013.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.“Prior work has found that a clean setting leads people to do good things: Not engage in crime, not litter, and show more generosity,” Kathleen Vohs, a psychological scientist at the University of Minnesota, said in a statement. “We found, however, that you can get really valuable outcomes from being in a messy setting.”
Vohs and her team completed a series of experiments in contrasting office environments – one that was clean and ordered, another that was cluttered and seemingly disorganized. Participants in the first environment donated more to charity and were more likely to pick healthy snack options. However, those in the messier environments appeared to come up with more interesting and creative ideas when required to identify new uses for a ping-pong ball.
Whereas orderly environments may encourage people to abide by conventions and play it safe, a messier space may “inspire breaking free of tradition”, inspiring “fresh insights”, Koch concluded.
“The working world is abuzz about cultivating innovation and creativity, endeavors that our findings suggest might be hampered by the minimalist movement,” she wrote for The New York Times Sunday Review. “While cleaning up certainly has its benefits, clean spaces might be too conventional to let inspiration flow.”
Throughout the years, researchers have connected a number of traits and habits to IQ. Indeed, a dark sense of humour, a sensitivity to loud chewing and a preference for cats over dogs (good news for childless cat ladies!) have all been linked to intelligence and/or creativity. So has being a fitness enthusiast and a couch potato – and, yes, we see the contradiction. So, with this in mind, it might be worth taking it all with a pinch of salt.
But back to the state of your desk. If it is on the messier side, you are in good company. Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs and Mark Twain were all known to keep a cluttered desk. So, next time your boss accuses you of having a less-than-tidy work surface or you receive a passive-aggressive desk organiser from your work Secret Santa, you can point them to Koch’s study.
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