Foster Creativity

Li, Liu, and Li studied the effects of being in an orderly environment on thoughts and behaviors.  They share that previous research has shown that “Environmental orderliness can affect both self-control behaviors and creative thinking.”  Their work “investigated the moderating effect of trait [inherently characteristic of a person] self-control on environmental orderliness influencing both self-control behaviors and creative thinking. . . . Participants exposed to an orderly or a disorderly room were asked to complete a breath-holding task measuring self-control. . . .

IIzadi and colleagues learned that creativity is influenced by whether we’re facing into or away from the current of air movement in a room. The researchers, conducting research in laboratories and in the field, found that “frontal airflow (air blowing on the front of the body) boosts energetic activation and fuels enhanced performance on creative tasks, compared to dorsal airflow (air blowing on the back of the body).”  An important study detail: creative engagement was “operationalized . . . as improved performance on creative tasks.”