Cleanliness and Convention: A Curious Correlation

Everyday, people propose the best ways to keep a clean environment: keeping your space tidy, getting rid of unnecessary clutter, organizing your life. In general, society values order and cleanliness, as this represents an efficient, productive way of living. However, evolutionarily speaking, there are advantages to both a messy and clean environment. In nature, order and disorder are both common environments and each one stimulates different mindsets, leading to different outcomes. 

Evolutionarily speaking, there are advantages to both a messy and clean environment.

In 2013, researchers at the University of Minnesota, led by Dr. Kathleen Vohs, performed a study, published in the journal Psychological Science, to explore how this aspect of nature may apply to modern humans. In a series of experiments, participants were placed in either orderly or disorderly office environments to see how being in each of the environments affected a person’s decisions and disposition. 

In one experiment, as the participants left their designated room, researchers asked if they would like to donate to a charity and encouraged them to take a snack. Participants in the orderly room donated twice as much money as participants in the disorderly room and were more likely to choose a healthier snack. Researchers concluded that orderly environments may influence people to make more generous or healthy choices, corresponding with an overall value of convention. In other words, in a cleaner environment, people may choose to align themselves closer with what society traditionally views as “good.”

In a cleaner environment, people may choose to align themselves closer with what society traditionally views as “good.”

In another experimental set-up, participants were asked to come up with ideas for a project proposal in their designated environment. When the ideas were scored by blind researchers, participants in the disorderly condition created more ideas, and specifically, more innovative ones. From this, it was determined that disorderly conditions may have a positive effect on creativity. This aligns with the findings of the first experiment, as disorder, which represents unconventional thinking, can be seen as the opposite of order, which represents convention. Unconventional thinking, and the ability to move away from tradition, is highly associated with creativity and innovation. 

Participants in the disorderly condition created more ideas, and specifically, more innovative ideas.

While this experiment was performed in a highly controlled setting, its findings can likely be applied to the outside world. Being in each type of environment, either messy or clean, prompts different approaches to our surroundings that can be beneficial in different circumstances. Nature requires a balance of order and disorder to function, so maybe we do as well.

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