Neat or Messy, Both Have Their Benefits In the first experiment, students were asked to perform a series of tasks either in a neat and organised room or a messy one with paper and other office supplies strewn around. After the tasks, they were given the opportunity to donate money to charity and then offered a choice between an apple and a bar of chocolate. The results found the 82 percent of people from the neat room offered to donate money, compared to 47 percent in the messy room. The people from the neat room also chose the apple 67 percent of the time, compared to just 20 percent from the messy room. The next experiment involved creativity, where students were placed in groups in either a neat or messy environment and asked to brainstorm new and creative uses for table tennis balls. While the people in both the environments came up with the same number of ideas, the ones from the messy room were much more creative than those from the neat room. For example, people from the messy environment suggested using them as ice cube trays or on the feet of chairs to protect floors, while people from the neat environment suggested using them to play a game called beer pong, which they are already used for. Being in a messy room led to creativity, and thats something organisations and others might want to pay attention to, says Kathleen Vohs, a psychological scientist and professor at the university. In the last experiment, participants sat at either a neat or messy desk and looked at menus for a make-believe restaurant. One version of the menu had a featured dish labeled classic, while on another version the same dish was featured as new. People were twice as likely to go for the new dish in the messy room than in the orderly room.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 06:41:08 +0000
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