Ceiling Height May Affect Problem-Solving Skills

An anonymous reader writes to mention that a recent University of Minnesota study suggests that ceiling height may affect problem-solving skills. "'When people are in a room with a high ceiling, they activate the idea of freedom. In a low-ceilinged room, they activate more constrained, confined concepts.' Either can be good. The concept of freedom promotes information processing that encourages greater variation in the kinds of thoughts one has, said Meyers-Levy, professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota. The concept of confinement promotes more detail-oriented processing."

Comments

Just work outside

[EmbeddedJanitor]

Telecommuting from the lawn chair is why wifi was invented.

Science

[pete-classic]

"professor of marketing"

Is marketing a Science now?

-Peter

Hmmm

[KKlaus]

Interesting, and not altogether surprising when you think about it, but I suspect the researchers are being a little to narrow minded about this (maybe they need higher ceilings). I think it's pretty reasonable to suspect (although I obviously don't have the data to prove it) that a wide variety of environments influence human thinking in non-subtle ways. I can imagine people being more or less optimistic depending on how white (color, not race just to head that one off...) their surroundings are, or more ecofriendly depending on how urban their surroundings are. I can at least speak from personal experience that I find myself less likely to speak my mind when I am in rooms where the walls are nearly all glass, where perhaps the underlying mechanism is one of being overly watched or scrutinized. Either way, I always appreciate studies that show a link between quality of work environment and quality of performance (which is what this essentially is). Here's to the death of stuffy and suffocating rooms!

Height of Ceiling VS Height of Worker?

[HappyHead]

The next question is - since ceiling height really is relative to how tall the person in the room is, (a 6.5 foot high ceiling would brush some people's heads and feel cramped, while others I know in the industry would not be able to reach it while standing on their desks and jumping.) does this mean that very short people are generally more prone to activating the idea of "freedom", while ludicrously tall people are more prone to thinking in constrained, confined concepts, when both are placed in an identical office environment?

Re:Height of Ceiling VS Height of Worker?

[nbert]

I'd say that small people just get used to having more space above (just like they are used to looking up when they speak to someone of average height). They will perceive a low ceiling exactly like a really tall person.

A personal side note: I had the luxury of growing up in an apartment with 3 meter ceilings (~10 foot). It's nothing special - just an older building in Europe. However, growing up under such conditions, I find it quite hard to accept any place where someone of average height can touch the ceiling. It's just like a cave to me plus the air is much worse. It might be more costly to build and to heat such buildings, but seriously: Do we have the best trade-off between construction, maintenance and living standard if the inhabitants can barely move without destroying e.g. the chandelier?

Re:Interesting Thought

[MyLongNickName]

Amazing how folks' minds go to Paris. I would argue her thinking is not restricted at all. This does not translate into "intelligent".

Re:Interesting Thought

[inviolet]

Wealthier individuals with the larger home... does the environment itself produce children who are less restricted in their thinking?

Now think even broader than that. What will the effect be of the grand and unprecedented social experiment, conducted over the past two decades, of raising children almost continuously confined indoors?

The farther back in history you go, the more time everyone spent outdoors, in which there was no ceiling. Perhaps this explains some small part of the modern retreat from independence.

Re:May affects?

[enjerth]

Two grammatical mistakes in three posts from ScuttleMonkey seems to indicate the need for a little more proofreading... ...or a higher ceiling. The article suggests a higher ceiling may inspire free thought, while a lower ceiling may promote attention to detail. So he needs a lower ceiling.

Re:Glass Ceilings

[Anonymous Coward]

Your company wont remove your ceiling. You need your ceiling to keep the people who
are on higher floors from falling on your head. The only exception is the people on
the top floor of your building ie ... the ones who ordered your cubicle be taken away. Teyll
keep there ceilings too, because all the discomforts that make regular employees more
productive are exactly the kinds of things that make senior executives less productive.
No one knows why.

I think the next wave of office design will focus on eliminating the only remaining obstacle to office productivity: your happiness. Happiness isn't a physical thing, like walls and doors. But it's closely related. Managers know that if they can eliminate all traces of happiness, the employees won't be so picky about their physical surroundings. Once you're hopelessly unhappy, you won't bother to complain if your boss rolls you up in a tight ball and crams you into a cardboard box.
joy of work dilbert by scott adams

Re:fascinating

[Puff of Logic]

Correlation doesn't PROVE causation,

I see that maxim quoted a lot these days. I see the point it's making, of course; but I can't help wondering: what does prove causation, then?

If a phenomenon is observed only when something is present but never when it is not, a causal relationship can reasonably be construed. The other point is, at least in science, nothing is ever proven!

Alternate conclusion

[PPH]

Did they consider whether, for a fixed ceiling height, shorter people exhibited less constrained thinking?