Contrary to earlier beliefs, a new study has revealed that listening to music while performing tasks does not enhance creativity; instead, it is better to work in silence or with only steady background noise.
Psychologists found that rather than enhancing creativity, people are less creative when listening to music. Unlike background noise, music may distract attention when performing a creative task instead of boosting it. In this study, researchers conducted a standard psychological test to measure the verbal creativity of the participants, giving them three words, such as "dress," "disk," and "flower," and asking them to find a single word that could be combined with the three other words to form three new sentences or phrases. The researchers tested three different types of background music, which were as follows:
- Music reduces people's ability to be creative
- Background music with unfamiliar foreign lyrics
- Instrumental music without lyrics
- Music with familiar lyrics.
The researchers compared participants' responses to the three previous types of music with quiet, steady background noise, like that found in a library. The results showed that all types of music, even instrumental music without lyrics, weakened people's abilities in the creativity test.
Co-author of the study, Dr. Neil McLachlan, stated, "We found strong evidence that performance declines when playing background music compared to quiet background noise."
**Music Disrupts Creative Performance**
It is worth noting that another study tested whether there was any difference if people regularly listened to music while working and if music improved their mood. The study's authors wrote, "In conclusion, the results of our study challenge the common view that music enhances creativity; instead, they clarify that music, regardless of its semantic content (whether it has words or familiar or unfamiliar lyrics), consistently disrupts individuals' creative performance when undertaking their creative tasks."
