According to a recent study by Mindlab International, nine out of 10 people will perform better when listening to music while working.
In Mindlab’s experiment, 26 participants were given a series of tasks to complete every day for five days, with one of four genres of music playing while they worked, or with no music at all. The results found that over 80% of participants produced their fastest and most accurate work when listening to music as opposed to nothing at all. Mindlab’s Dr. David Lewis summed up the role of music in the workplace.
“The take-home message is that music is a very powerful management tool if you want to increase not only the efficiency of your workforce but also their mental state, their emotional state – they’re going to become more positive about the work.”
Now, this isn’t to say that the vomit inducing playlists of Target or HomeGoods are going to increase productivity. We all know how counterproductive that can be, and so do the researchers. They’ve put some thought into what genres work best, and dance music makes a bold appearance as one of the best jams to listen to.
Electronic dance music resulted in the highest overall accuracy and fastest performance across a range of tasks. Spell-checking, solving equations, mathematical word problems, and abstract reasoning tasks were all accomplished quickly and more effectively with a driving rhythm of dance music.
Similarly, pop music proved well for data entry and deadlines, ambient music was perfect for solving intricate equations, and classical music boosts attention to detail.
H/T The Telegraph