Are messy people more creative?
Are organized people boring?
As somebody who cannot find his keys underneath his dirty
laundry, I say yes to both.
And so does science.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Anthony here for D News.
And there is this prevailing myth
that messy people are super-creative geniuses.
Just look at the desks and work spaces
of Albert Einstein, Roald Dahl, or Peter Parker--
who is not real, but feels real in my heart.
I like this theory because I'm a little disorganized myself.
But is it true?
And what traits come along with an organized life?
Researchers at University of Minnesota
wanted to find out just that, and so they ran three studies
to see how the tidiness of a room affects human behavior.
In the first, people were sent into either a tidy room
or a messy room and asked to think about all
the creative ways to sell ping-pong balls they could.
People in each room gave the same amount of answers,
but the two independent judges found the answers
from the messy room more creative.
And a previous study by Northwestern University
showed that people in a messy room
drew more creative pictures and could solve brain-teasers
faster.
In the second Missouri study, the people in each room
were given menus from a smoothie shop
and they were offered a smoothie with a free boost.
In the tidy room, people were more
likely to choose a boost that was labeled "classic,"
while the people in the messy room
were more likely to pick one labeled "new."
So the messy room led people to be drawn more towards novelty,
while the tiny room was drawn more towards convention.
Boring.
Trailblazers, I tell you.
Messy trailblazers.
Anyway, the final group was asked
to fill out a questionnaire, and then they
were offered either a chocolate bar or an apple.
And here's the thing.
The people in the messy room almost always
went for chocolate, and tidy-roomers
went for the apple.
I'm willing to admit to a certain level of impulsiveness.
That's fine.
Oh, and also, those people were asked
if they'd like to donate to a charitable organization,
and the people in the clean room donated a lot more money
and they donated more often.
OK, so maybe tidy people make healthier, more ethical people,
but the messy people are still the creative risk-takers,
and that counts for something, right?
In reality, the results just seem
to show that cleaner environments promote safe
and conventional behavior and messy ones
cause a break from traditional thinking.
Those things are not good or bad by definition.
It just depends on what situation you're in.
You know, speaking as somebody from the messy camp though,
it's important to remember that in a public space,
like school or work, you have to deal with other people's
perceptions of your habits.
57% of people in a recent survey said
they judge people by how clean they keep their work spaces.
And nearly half of them said that a messy desk
is a clear sign that the person who sits at it
is straight-up lazy.
Maybe I should keep my desk clean
but secretly do all my work in the storage closet.
Best of both worlds.
Do you work better in a clean or a messy environment?
I cannot think unless I'm surrounded by clutter.
Let me know down in the comments and subscribe for more D News.