Many people like to play background music while studying or working, believing that it can help improve mood and stimulate creativity, but this practice can be counterproductive. A study by scientists in the UK and Sweden found that background music, far from being creative and destructive, can have a devastating effect. From Mozart to metallica, tons of people enjoy listening to various types of music while they paint, write, or draw. many believe that music helps boost creativity, but an international study conducted by English and Swedish researchers is challenging that notion.
Psychologists from Lancaster University, Gävle University and the University of Central Lancashire say their findings show that music actually hinders creativity.
To come to their conclusions, researchers had participants complete verbal insight problems designed to inspire creativity while sitting in a quiet room, and then again while music played in the background. They found that background music “significantly impaired” the participants’ ability to complete tasks associated with verbal creativity.
The team also tested background noise, such as those often heard in the library, but found that these noises had no effect on the subjects' creativity.
The tasks that participants need to complete are some simple word games. For example, give participants three words, such as dress, dial, and flower. They were then asked to find a word that was related to all three words, and all three words could be combined with it to form a common phrase or word. In this example, the word should be sun, which can be used to form words such as sundress and sunflower.
Participants completed the tasks in either a quiet room, or while exposed to three different types of music; music with unfamiliar lyrics, instrumental music, or music with familiar lyrics. "We found strong evidence of impaired performance when playing background music in comparison to quiet background conditions,” says co-author Dr. Neil McLatchie of Lancaster University. Dr. McLatchie and his colleagues theorize that music interferes with the verbal working memory processes of the brain, hindering creativity. Also, as far as the library background noises having seemingly no effect, the study’s authors believe that was the case because library noises create a “steady state” environment that doesn’t disrupt concentration.
It’s worth mentioning that even familiar music with well-known lyrics impaired participants’ creativity, regardless of whether or not it elicited a positive reaction, or whether participants typically studied or created while listening to music. "To conclude, the findings here challenge the popular view that music enhances creativity, and instead demonstrate that music, regardless of the presence of semantic content (no lyrics, familiar lyrics or unfamiliar lyrics), consistently disrupts creative performance in insight problem solving,” the study reads.
