According to published research from Ravi Mehta, a professor of business administration, ambient background noise turns out to be an important factor affecting creative cognition among consumers<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe found that ambient noise is an important antecedent for creative cognition,\u201d Mehta said. \u201cA moderate level of noise not only enhances creative problem-solving but also leads to a greater adoption of innovative products in certain settings<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n In the article, Methta and co-authors Rui (Juliet) Zhu, of the University of British Columbia, and Amar Cheema, of the University of Virginia, explore how a moderate-level of ambient noise (about 70 decibels, equivalent to a passenger car traveling on a highway) enhances performance on creative tasks and increases the likelihood of consumers purchasing innovative products. Similarly, the researchers also studied how a high level of noise (85 decibels, equivalent to traffic noise on a major road) hurts creativity by reducing information processing.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we found is that there\u2019s an inverted-U relationship between noise level and creativity<\/strong>,\u201d Mehta said. \u201cIt turns out that around 70 decibels is the sweet spot<\/strong>. If you go beyond that, it\u2019s too loud, and the noise starts to negatively affect creativity. It\u2019s the Goldilocks principle \u2013 the middle is just right.\u201d<\/p>\n Using background noise commonly found in consumers\u2019 lives, the researchers show that, as noise increases, so does one\u2019s level of distraction<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cAn increased level of distraction makes you think \u2018out-of-the-box\u2019 \u2013 what we call abstract thinking or abstract processing, which is a hallmark of increased creativity<\/strong>,\u201d Mehta said. \u201cBut when you start to go beyond that moderate level of noise, what happens is that distraction becomes so huge that it really starts affecting the thought process<\/strong>. You really can\u2019t process information because the distraction is so pronounced. And that is what inhibits creativity.<\/p>\n \u201cSo a moderate level of noise produces just enough distraction to lead to higher creativity, but a very high level of noise induces too much distraction, which actually reduces the amount of processing, thus leading to lower creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n The research, which has important practical implications for inducing consumer behavior, should be useful for both advertisers and marketers, who typically strive to increase adoption rates of new and innovative products.<\/p>\n \u201cWe studied this in a consumer environment because previous research has only considered white noise or pink noise\u201d \u2013 a variant of white noise, which sounds like the static buzz of an off-air TV station \u2013 \u201cwhich you don\u2019t really find in consumer environments,\u201d Mehta said. \u201cSo in this case we used everyday multi-talker noise to find out how it affects consumer behavior in a consumption environment. In order to encourage adoption of new and innovative products, marketers might consider equipping their showrooms with a moderate level of ambient noise.\u201d<\/p>\n Mehta says the research is not only applicable to consumer research, but also to problem-solving in general.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is research that people can relate to almost immediately,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m working in a coffee shop \u2013 how does the noise in the background volume of the music affect my performance?”<\/p>\n It\u2019s also valuable for individuals looking for creative solutions to everyday problems, such as planning a dinner menu based on limited supplies or generating interesting research topics to study.<\/p>\n \u201cOur findings imply that instead of burying oneself in a quiet room trying to figure out a solution, walking outside of one\u2019s comfort zone and getting into a relatively noisy environment like a cafe may actually trigger the brain to think abstractly, and thus generate creative ideas,\u201d Mehta said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the University of Illinois press release: The sound of silence isn\u2019t so golden for consumers, and both marketers and advertisers should take note, says new research from a University… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[153,179,42,18,96,77,263,364,126,12],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2939"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2939"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2940,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2939\/revisions\/2940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/images\/blogpics\/SoundWaves.jpg\" "\\"sound")
The sound of silence isn\u2019t so golden for consumers, and both marketers and advertisers should take note<\/strong>, says new research from a University of Illinois expert in new product development and marketing.<\/p>\n