Messy Desks and Creativity

Are you a disorganized person?

Is your desk always messy?

It turns out this could actually be a good thing.

In 2014, a group of American researchers did a study.

They wanted to learn what kind of people had messy desks.

So, they looked at the desks of university students and measured them for their neatness.

They also asked the students to take psychological tests.

According to the researchers, the students with organized desks had many virtues.

They behaved well and were good at following rules.

They were also generous and donated to charities.

However, the students with untidy desks had some positive traits, too.

In many ways, these students were more creative.

They had interesting ideas and were good at thinking outside of the box.

The researchers pointed out a few possible reasons for these results.

Some researchers said the messy desks enabled people to think more freely.

Others said when people were creative, they were too focused on their own thoughts.

Then, they simply forgot to clean their desks.

 

• neatness  정돈됨, 단정함, 깔끔함,   neat  정돈된, 단정한, 말쑥한  psychological   |saɪkə│lɑːdʒɪkl  정신[심리]의, 정신[심리]적인

• virtue  ˈvɜːrtʃuː  장점 (=advantage) ,  선, 선행   trait  treɪt   (성격상의) 특성   untidy  ʌnˈtaɪdi   단정치 못한, 어수선한 ,  깔끔하지 못한, 정리를 잘 안 하는 (↔tidy)

• point out  가리키다, 지적하다, 주목하다. (=direct, indicate; draw attention to.)