Thought-Provoking Thursday: Looking For a Creativity Boost? Try Some Noise.
When you want to do your best, most creative work, where do you go? To a park or coffee shop, or to a quiet corner where no one can disturb you? If your preference is the quiet corner, you might actually be doing your brain a disservice.
According to a study published in the Journal of Consumer Research, a moderate level of background noise — about 70 decibels, or the equivalent of a moving car that’s 30 feet away — enhances creativity and helps problem solving.
“What we are saying, any noise induces distraction from what you’re doing, and that distraction makes you think out of the box,” explained Ravi Mehta, lead author of the paper and assistant professor of business administration at the College of Business at Illinois. “As the noise goes up, there’s a moderate level of distraction — you’re still distracted a little, and that helps you refocus yourself from that task, and that helps you think of different ways of solving a problem.”
In a series of five experiments, Mehta and his co-researchers put students through different creativity tests. In one, students were asked to complete a word association test; in another, they were asked to come up with creative ideas for a new type of mattress. In each test, there were a range of background noises, and in each test, it was the students in the moderate noise group that performed the best.
Mehta compares the effect to what happens when people mulling over a problem stop mulling and take a shower — only to arrive at a solution in the shower. It’s the distraction from the problem (in this case, a little bit of noise) that frees the brain to find a solution.
This begs the question: should writers and product developers and other creative types immediately flee the office in search of a nice coffee shop or public park?
Not so fast, says David Burkus, author of “The Myths of Creativity: The Truth About How Innovative Companies and People Generate Great Ideas.” First, it’s important to consider what is actually on your to-do list.
“It’s about knowing what type of work you have to do. When you have to engage your creative thinking side, the ambient noise is a good thing,” he said. “But there are times you need to lock yourself in a closed space and make a phone call, or start writing.”
Burkus also noted that parks and coffee shops aren’t the only two places with helpful ambient noise — hotel lobbies and fab labs work well too. “[A fab lab] is like a public library for machines. You can go and rent space on a 3D printer and those kinds of tools. I find that those machines in the background are good for ambient noise,” he said.
And if your boss doesn’t believe you when you say that Central Park (or Central Perk) helps your creative juices flow? According to Burkus, there are apps for that. He recently highlighted six particularly good ambient noise generators in an article for 99u.com; of these six, he says Coffitivity is one of his favorites.
“One of the things I really liked about the Coffitivity app is you can change [noise] levels, and in real coffee shop environment you can’t do that,” he said. However, he cautioned potential users — of Coffitivity or any ambient noise app — against expecting an immediate, lightning-like bolt of creativity just from one app.
“It may be something you gotta look back on in a few weeks,” he said, “and see if the quality of work changed.”
