Free 59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot by Richard Wiseman Page B

like a street entertainer trying to attract a crowd”). How is the problem solved in these situations? Can this idea be applied to your problem? Finally, think about doing the exact opposite of every solution you have created so far.
Play . When you are being too serious, your brain becomes constrained. Jump-start your creativity by having some fun. Take a break for fifteen minutes, watch a funny film, or digitally alter a photograph of your colleague so that he or she looks more like an owl.
Perceive . When the world becomes too familiar, your brain reverts to automatic pilot and stops seeing what is right in front of your eyes. Try switching your mind to manual by becoming more curious about the world. Ask yourself an interesting question each week. How do elephants communicate over hundreds of miles? Why do people laugh? Why are bananas yellow? How cmoe yuor bairn is albe to udnertsnad tihs snetence eevn tghouh olny the frist and lsat ltetres of ecah wrod are crreoct? Invest some time and energy in trying to discover possible answers to the question, if only for the fun of it.
    NATURE CALLS
    In 1948 George de Mestral went for a stroll in the countryside in his native Switzerland. When he returned home he noticed that his clothing was covered in tiny burs. As he set about the annoying task of removing them one by one, he decided to figure out why they stuck to his clothing. Close examination revealed that the burs were covered with tiny hooks that easily attached themselves to the loops in fabric. Inspired by this simple concept, de Mestral wondered whether the same idea could be used to attach other surfaces together, a thought that eventually resulted in his inventing Velcro.
    De Mestral’s story is frequently cited as evidence for one of the most important principles underlying creativity: the realization that an idea or technique from one situation can be applied to another. This principle certainly appears to accountfor many famous examples of breakthrough thinking, including, for example, Frank Lloyd Wright’s finding inspiration for the design of a church roof by noticing the shape of his hands at prayer. However, there may have been another hidden but equally important factor at work.
    A significant amount of research has examined the effects of the natural environment on people’s thinking and behavior. The work shows that even a small amount of plant life can have a surprisingly large impact on making the world a better place. The recovery rates of patients in hospitals are significantly improved when they are able to see trees from their ward windows, 8 and prisoners whose cell windows overlook farmlands and forests report fewer medical problems than others. 9 The effects are not just confined to prisoners and patients but extend to everyone. Other studies have examined the relationship between greenery and crime. In perhaps the most ingenious of these, researchers focused their attention on a large public-housing development in Chicago. 10 The development was especially interesting for two reasons. First, some sections contained a relatively large number of shrubs and trees, while other areas resembled the proverbial concrete jungle. Second, previous to the study the residents had been randomly assigned to apartments in the development, thus ensuring that any differences in crime rates in the two types of areas could not be the result of income, background, or any other such factors. The study yielded impressive results. The parts of the development that contained greenery were associated with 48 percent fewer property crimes and 52 percent fewer violent crimes than those that contained nothing but concrete. The researchers speculated that the greenery may have put people in a good mood and therefore made them less likely to commit crimes.
    In the same way that greenery seems to reduce antisocialbehavior, it also seems to make people more creative. In a series of experiments, Japanese psychologists Seiji