Researchers Find Ceiling Height Can Alter How You Think

University researchers in the U.S. and Canada have determined that when it comes to ceiling height, taller isn't necessarily better. It all depends on what you'll be doing underneath the ceiling.

Studies recently concluded at the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management, and the Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia have determined that the height of the ceiling can have a profound effect on a person's thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Tests showed that a higher ceiling stimulates a feeling of freedom, and as a result encourages more abstract, creative, free-form thoughts. A lower ceiling, on the other hand, stimulates a feeling of confinement or focus, and thus encourages more narrow attention and detail-oriented thoughts.

The 2-year study consisted of three tests ranging from anagram puzzles to product evaluation. Some of the tasks were better suited to focusing on details, whereas others were more easily completed with abstract thinking.

Test subject activity in a room with a 10-foot ceiling resulted in what the researchers called "freer, more abstract thinking," while subjects in an 8-foot tall room focused more on specific details.

Joan Meyers-Levy, a marketing professor at the University of Minnesota, came upon the idea for the concept one day while waiting at an airport to board a plane. She began to wonder what it was about the space that was affecting her mood.

One of the questions she proposed as the basis of the study was how ceiling height might affect a person's perception of a given product in a retail environment. In the product evaluation test, subjects were much more critical of a item's shortcomings when evaluation took place in the 8-foot room as opposed to the 10-foot room.

The findings have yielded implications for retailers in designing their display space. In addition, the application of ceiling height may also be taken into consideration in the design of homes, offices, and other workplaces. There is also the potential that these findings will encourage others to research how space can affect health and safety.

Meyers-Levy believes that the study has value outside of the marketplace. For instance, she has hypothesized that, based on the findings, surgeons would be able to focus their attention on details in an operating theatre with a low ceiling, while their patients would recuperate better in rooms with taller ceilings because they wouldn't be as focused on their own condition.

Rui (Juliet) Zhu of the University of British Columbia is Meyers-Levy's co-author. The findings of this study will be published in the August issue of the Journal of Consumer Research.

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Sources: http://www.livescience.com/health/070507_high_ceilings.html
http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2007/05/03/71831