During an interview for one of my books, my interviewer said something I still think about often. Annoyed by the level of distraction in his open office, he said, “That’s why I have a membership at the coworking space across the street —so I can focus. "His comment struck me as strange. After all, coworking spaces also typically use an open office layout. But I recently came across a study that shows why his approach works.

在为我的一本书接受采访时，采访者说了一些我仍然经常想到的话。因为对开放式办公室分心的程度感到恼火，他说，“这就是为什么我在街对面的共用空间拥有会员资格——这样我就能集中精力。”他的说法让我感到奇怪。毕竟，共用空间通常也使用开放式办公室布局。不过我最近看到了一项研究，才明白他的方案为什么有效。

The researchers examined various levels of noise on participants as they completed tests of creative thinking. They were randomly divided into four groups and exposed to various noise levels in the background, from total silence to 50 decibels,70 decibels, and 85 decibels. The differences between most of the groups were statistically insignificant; however,the participants in the 70 decibels group—those exposed to a level of noise similar to background chatter in a coffee shop-significantly outperformed the other groups. Since the effects were small, this may suggest that our creative thinking does not differ that much in response to total silence and 85 decibels of background noise.

研究人员在参与者完成创造性思维测试时，检查了他们身上不同程度的噪音。他们被随机分为四组，暴露在不同的背景噪音水平下，从完全安静到50分贝、70分贝和85分贝。大多组之间的差异没有统计学意义；然而，在70分贝组中，那些暴露在类似于咖啡馆背景聊天的噪音水平下的参与者明显优于其他组。由于影响很小，这可能表明我们的创造性思维对完全安静和85分贝的背景噪音的反应没有太大差异。

But since the results at 70 decibels were significant, the study also suggests that the right level of background noise—not too loud and not total silence—may actually improve one’s creative thinking ability. The right level of background noise may interrupt our normal patterns of thinking just enough to allow our imaginations to wander, without making it impossible to focus. This kind of "distracted focus" appears to be the best state for working on creative tasks.

但由于70分贝的结果显著，这项研究还表明，适当的背景噪音水平——不要太大，也不要完全安静——实际上可能会提高一个人的创造性思维能力。适当的背景噪音可能会干扰我们正常的思维模式，足以让我们的想象力四处发散，而不会让我们无法集中注意力。这种“注意力分散”似乎是从事创造性任务的最佳状态。

So why do so many of us hate our open offices? The problem may be that, in our offices, we can't stop ourselves from getting drawn into others’ conversations while we’re trying to focus. Indeed, the researchers found that face-to-face interactions and conversations affect the creative process, and yet a coworking space or a coffee shop provides a certain level of noise while also providing freedom from interruptions.

那么，为什么我们中有这么多人讨厌开放式办公室呢？问题可能是，在我们的办公室里，当我们努力集中注意力时，我们无法阻止自己被其他人的谈话所吸引。事实上，研究人员发现，面对面的互动和对话会影响创作过程，而一个共用空间或咖啡馆在提供一定程度的噪音的同时，也提供了免受干扰的自由。