Scientific proof that creative people have messy desks

BRISBANE. September 21. KAZINFORM Scientists in America have proven what the hopelessly messy among us have secretly hoped they'd discover one day. Yes, messy desk people are more creative.
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Published in the Journal Psychological Science , the study by three researchers from the University of Minnesota has the somewhat cumbersome title: Physical Order Produces Healthy Choices, Generosity, and Conventionality, Whereas Disorder Produces Creativity.
"Order and disorder are prevalent in both nature and culture," the authors write in their intro.
"This suggests that each environ confers advantages for different outcomes."
This makes intuitive sense. Bee hives are highly ordered, ant nests not so much. Takes all types, and all that.
Speaking of ants, this particular Ant has a desk so messy, you'd need a whole new scientific study to prove there's actually a desk down there holding up all those plates and stuff.
A fellow journo mate once discovered a peanut butter sandwich on his desk three months after he lost it. Suffice to say, this guy has a fertile, productive mind and writes cracking yarns. So maybe there's something in this research.
The New York Times reports that the researchers arrived at their hypothesis in an interesting way. There were three main experiments, but the really interesting one was to do with ping pong balls.
What they did was, they put college students into two rooms - one filthy, the other super shiny and neat. They then asked the students to make something out of ping pong balls.

Two independent judges then ruled that the group in the messy room came up with more creative ideas.
In a different experiment, the researchers also found that people in messy environments were more likely to choose new stuff, whereas those in the neat room wanted everything to stay the same.
As we all know, a same-same mentality can be the enemy of creativity. Not always, but often.
Anyway, it's early in the day and this reporter needs to try to write something of substance today. Gonna shuffle all that crap around some more, maybe even spill a bit of coffee on the desk, then see what the day brings.
And now, as promised, here is a messy desk or two from our readers!

Staff did this to one of our readers. Nice creativity-stifling, guys Source: NewsComAu

Bloody disgraceful... in an excellent way Source: NewsComAu
How does your desk compare to Ant's? Send photographs of your messy desks to [email protected] and we'll update this throughout the day.

* The author would like to confess he just turned his keyboard upside-down, tapped it firmly a couple of times and a bunch of crumbs and dirt and eyelashes or something came out. It was pretty unpleasant.

Source: www.news.au.com

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