Is Your Desk Messy? Could Be a Sign of Brilliance!

by Jack

For eons we have thought that well organized people were the iconic example of correct living. But, it turns out that us messy people tend to have some significant redeeming qualities too. Nothing against the well organized, they have my respect and admiration for their attention to detail, but a recent psychological study found that a messy desk, bedroom, etc., are often symptomatic of a clever mind. “Being in a messy room led to something that firms, industries, and societies want more of: Creativity,” says researcher Vohs.

In a study in the September issue of Psychological Science, Kathleen Vohs, PhD, of the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management, found that working in a tidy room encourages people to do socially responsible, normatively “good” things like eat healthfully and give to charity. But working in a messy room seems to help them try new things and come up with creative ideas.

“Disorderly environments seem to inspire breaking free of tradition, which can produce fresh insights,” Vohs concludes. “Orderly environments, in contrast, encourage convention and playing it safe.”

Surprisingly, the specific physical location didn’t seem to matter:

“We used 6 different locations in our paper — the specifics of the rooms were not important. Just making that environment tidy or unkempt made a whopping difference in people’s behavior,” says Vohs.

The researchers are continuing to investigate whether these effects might even transfer to a virtual environment: the Internet. Preliminary findings suggest that the tidiness of a webpage predicts the same kind of behaviors.

Click here for the study.

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5 Responses to Is Your Desk Messy? Could Be a Sign of Brilliance!

  1. Danthe Man says:

    I think these studies are usually bunk but there may be something to this one. my kid has a sloppy looking bedroom but he is real gifted. he can play music, draw, he speaks spanish better than we can speak english and he has good grades and best of all he is always coming up with great ideas on stuff. yeah, hes a messy kid, who knew this was a sign? LOL

  2. J. Soden says:

    Even at my father’s knee, I heard “A clean desk signifies a sick mind.”
    Mine must be pretty healthy . . . . .

  3. dewey says:

    Here ya go Jack #TPP in your language… This is a republican site

    http://obamatrade.com/why-no-tpp/

    why are you not helping in this fight? “Classified trade Agreements” threaten our sovernighty.

    TPA is unconstitutional. So are you for giving Obama this authority? This would make him the 1st president denied it.

    For me? I just know we can not trust this deal. It must be shown to the public. Corporate courts that can put financial judgements against countries, cities, states for projected profits is a new modern global fascism.

    Are you for this trade deal? Did you not read the leaked documents?

  4. Tina says:

    This is America where the people should not only be fully informed but capable of electing better representation. Trade agreements are not evil but some of our representatives are. The intentions of those who create trade agreements are more important than the agreements themselves. O’Bummer is a fundamental transformer. He has no loyalties to our Constitution or our sovereignty. He has worked overtime to undermine our republic. The radicals in control of the Democrat Party cannot be trusted…they prefer the world stage and world wide socialism with them and the UN in control as the ultimate goal.

    Wake up America!

    Push the party of stupid to wake up.

    If we don’t elect representatives that love America and believe in freedom and capitalism we are done.

  5. Steve says:

    Why thank you Jack! If my desk is any indication I must be wise, although my wife insists I am more of a wise@#$. Gotta be good at something!

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