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Does Listening to Music Have a Negative Impact on Creativity? (slashgear.com)
We've all heard the studies. AmiMoJo quotes the health and science editor of Slashgear: A new study has found that listening to music may have a negative impact on creativity. This is contrary to the popular idea that music and creativity often go hand in hand. According to the researchers, the negative impact was found even in cases where the music had a positive impact on mood and was liked by the person listening to it. However, background noise didn't have the same effect...
Unlike music, the noise in a library provided a "steady state" environment, which had less of a disruptive effect on participants. Though studying with background music may not completely obliterate someone's ability to think creatively, the research indicates that you may do your best work without it.
But what do Slashdot's readers think? Do you listen to music when you're working -- or do you prefer the steady sounds of silence? Share your own experiences in the comments.
Does listening to music have a negative impact on creativity?
Unlike music, the noise in a library provided a "steady state" environment, which had less of a disruptive effect on participants. Though studying with background music may not completely obliterate someone's ability to think creatively, the research indicates that you may do your best work without it.
But what do Slashdot's readers think? Do you listen to music when you're working -- or do you prefer the steady sounds of silence? Share your own experiences in the comments.
Does listening to music have a negative impact on creativity?
... listening ot music consumes resources that the attention system in the brain needs to focus on the problem at hand. More distraction = less resources. A giant no brainer there. But I guess it's a slow newsday at slashdot.
I am old enough to remember when Robert Pirsig's book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was first published. I think he settled this question well enough back then but there is just no way his message could grow past its apparent obscurity.
Fast forward a few decades and I am helping my girlfriends early-teen sons with their homework. They cannot even conceive of even sitting down to do it without a CD (that era) with some obnoxious bang bang BANG bang noise being distorted out of some nearby speaker. They are bright enough but their concentration is shit for what seems to me to be obvious reason. I can turn it off when I'm there and explain what is going on but the instant I am gone they start up the noise again and they must be entertained. Their grades remained crap and they barely passed high school. I got a serious case of oldfartitis.
Creative work does have a domain where outside stimulus such as favorite music might be helpful. Few musicians create worthwhile new works without listening to what came before. Even cross-genre. Maybe particularly so.
But at some point the passive reception mode has to be changed to forward focus mode. And for that you have to lose the need to be stimulated and focus on the task at hand. It can be hard work.
As Ursula Le Guin once pointed out: many writers make the mistake of confusing feeling creative with actually being creative. She was talking about taking drugs not music but I think it is pretty much the same.
I find good music even more distracting because I'm paying attention to how great it is.
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
The question is not precise. If I need to choose from complete silence and music, perhaps I would choose the silence. In the office enviroment, I choose music to cut off all background sounds.