Do you feel better with plants and flowers around? Most people do, and researchers at Texas A&M University think that’s why a recent study found that working in the presence of plants and cut flowers made people think more creatively.
In the study, 101 people age 19 to 35 were asked questions that invited them to think of new ideas in three settings: a plain windowless office; the same office decorated with abstract sculptures; and the office decorated with two house plants and a vase of fresh cut flowers, according to Roger Ulrich, a behavioral scientist, who led the study with psychologist James Varni.
For both men and women, “their overall creativity was substantially greater when flowers and plants were present,” Ulrich said. In men, there was a 15 percent increase in the number of ideas generated in the plant-filled office versus the plain office, Ulrich said.
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Edited by Cara DiPasquale (cdipasquale@tribune.com) and Kris Karnopp (kkarnopp@tribune.com)
