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creativity
Moderate background noise actually improves your creative thinking performance.
A 2012 study found that 70 decibels of ambient noise enhances performance on creative tasks, while 85 decibels proves too distracting.
Low to moderate noise causes a slight increase in processing difficulty, which forces your brain to abstract its thinking. This mild distraction prevents you from fixating on a single, narrow path. You start to make broader, more original associations when your focus is slightly diffused.
Total silence is not always the best environment for insight.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Mehta et al., 2012, Journal of Consumer Research
- What the check found
- The study cited (Mehta, Zhu, & Cheema, 2012) is real and the findings are accurately reported; however, the lack of the study in the provided context caps the confidence score per instructions.
- Confidence
- Contested
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.