16 April 2022 | New Scientist | 47Even something as simple as reorganising
your books according to colour can be a way
of creating more order in a room, says Lee.
Finally, it may be helpful to find ways to fine-
tune the ambience, so that you feel you have
more control of your environment. One study
at an insurance company in Wisconsin used
technology that allowed individual employees
to control the lighting and ventilation of their
workspace, which significantly increased
productivity by a few per cent. This may, in
part, be due to greater physical comfort – but
further studies suggest that the mere illusion
of control over our surroundings can help us
to feel better, even when the ambience itself
doesn’t substantially change.
And while you are thinking about all
these changes, don’t forget the importance
of individuality. While environmental
psychology might offer solutions for reducing
stress, instilling discipline and improving
productivity, remember there are always
exceptions. So if that oversized, shiny Harley-
Davidson motorcycle on display in the corner
of your living room brings you a spark of joy, it
is OK to occasionally drop the rulebook (as long
as you quickly return it to its correct position
on your colour-coordinated bookshelf). ❚without some kind of organising principle,
such as symmetry or repetition. Such small
tweaks – while seemingly irrelevant to human
behaviour – could influence our actions in
profound ways, says Ingrid Fetell Lee, author
of Joyful: The surprising power of ordinary
things to create extraordinary happiness.
She highlights a study by researchers
at the University of Chicago, in which
participants were shown various designs,
some of which looked visually chaotic and
jarring, with asymmetrical features. “They
weren’t dirty or littered,” says Lee. “They
were just architecturally funky.” Incredibly,
participants shown chaotic designs were more
likely to cheat when grading themselves on a
maths test, compared with people who had
viewed more ordered images. There is even
evidence that orderly environments can
encourage healthier eating, too.
We can only read so much into these
findings, which examine the short-term
effects of order in our environment, but
studies investigating the opposite end of
the spectrum – clutter – also support the idea
that an ordered home has benefits. There is a
significant link between procrastination and
clutter in your environment, for instance.
Several experiments show that a cluttered
home is also linked to increased levels of
cortisol throughout the day. It may be that the
clutter itself isn’t the stressor, but the thought
of having to keep up appearances. Regardless,
creating a bit of visual order seems worthwhile.“ People were
happier and less
tired in rooms
with wood
on display”
Change your light
to think better
David Robson is author of The
Expectation Effect: How your
mindset can transform your lifeshow that people are better at performing
tasks that test working memory – your
ability to hold and manipulate information
in your mind – when a room is at their
preferred temperature, potentially leading to
improvements in efficiency and productivity.
Of course, the ideal temperature may be a
trickier call when sharing a home-working
space with a partner.
Your unique preferences can also be let
loose when it comes to colour. While you
might have heard that certain colour schemes
can influence cognitive performance, larger
analyses tend to suggest the effects are
minimal. On the other hand, there is strong
evidence that the lighting schemes we use
can influence things like creativity – so
dimmer switches might be a good investment
(see “Change your light to think better”, above).
More generally, you should be mindful of
the overall visual complexity that you are
creating; natural designs may be soothing,
but can be in danger of looking too chaotic
Natural elements –
real or fake – allow
the brain to recover
from mental fatigueUnless we are creating soft
lighting for a romantic meal,
it is easy to ignore the subtle
ways that lights can influence
our mental state. But a series of
studies have shown that it can
profoundly influence thinking.
Anna Steidle and Lioba Werth
at the University of Hohenheim
in Germany, for instance, found
that bright lights – of 1500
lux – encourage a greater sense
of self-awareness, which, in turn,
leads to more reflective thinking.
Dimmer lights, in contrast,
tend to make us less self-
conscious – which psychologistshave discovered can promote
a more experimental mindset
that suits freewheeling problem
solving. Participants in dim
settings found it easier to solve
the famous candle problem, for
example, in which they are asked
to fix and light a candle on a wall
so that the wax doesn’t drip on
the floor, using a box of matches
and a box of thumbtacks as
their only tools. The correct
solution requires emptying
the box of thumbtacks, placing
the candle inside and then
using a thumbtack to attach
the box to the wall.