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Coffee Shop Noise Makes You Creative

Posted by on 22 August 2013
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Walk into any coffee shop and you are bound to find people
hunched over laptops and tablets, working away. Turns out, they are not just
there for the cup-a-joe and the free Wi-Fi. In fact, scientists have found that
some need background noise to get inspired and create.
A new website, Coffitivity, now lets you bring the coffee
shop to your cubicle. This free website was triggered by recent research
showing that the sounds of espresso machines and caffeinated chatter typical of
most coffee shops creates the perfect right level of background noise to
stimulate creativity.
The New York Times
reported that researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign looked
at the effects of noise on creative thinking by having participants brainstorm
ideas for new products while they were exposed to varying levels of background
noise. Their results, published in The Journal
of Consumer Research
, found that a level of ambient noise typical of a
coffee shop, about 70 decibels, enhanced performance compared with the relative
quiet of 50 decibels. But, a higher level of noise, about 85 decibels, the
noise level generated by a blender, was found to be too distracting.

Ravi Mehta, an assistant professor of business
administration at the university who led the research, said that extreme quiet
tends to sharpen your focus, preventing you from thinking in the abstract. He
explained, 'This is why if you're too focused on a problem and you're not able
to solve it. You leave it for some time and then come back to it and you get
the solution.'

The creators of the Coffitivity site struck upon their idea
after brainstorming on an unrelated start-up. 'We had been in and out of coffee
shops, and we were getting really good work done,' said Ace Callwood, a founder
of the site.
Another member of the team, Justin Kauszler, noticed that
when he returned to his regular work space, in a sterile office, his productivity
plummeted. When Kauszler's boss shot down his request to leave the office and
work from a coffee shop, he and his colleagues decided that they would bring
their favorite coffeehouses to their computers. With some audio equipment in
hand, they eventually found a spot with ideal noise level, a place called
Harrison Street Cafe.
'It had just the right mix of everything,' Callwood said.
'You could get the coffee machine, and you had people talking and eating. It
has two levels, and we got the vibe upstairs and downstairs.'
Coffitivity started on March 4, and that day it got about
120 page views. Since then, traffic has exploded. Seoul, Korea, is the top user
city, followed by New York City London, L.A. and Chicago. Callwood and his
colleagues at Coffitivity say they are creating an app and adding soundtracks
tailored to specific countries.

Amanda Ciccatelli,
Social Media Strategist at IIR USA in New York City, has a background in
digital and print journalism, covering a variety of topics in business
strategy, marketing, and technology. She previously worked at Technology
Marketing Corporation as a Web Editor where she covered breaking news and
feature stories in the tech industry. She can be reached at aciccatelli@iirusa.com.
Follow her at @AmandaCicc.
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