Forget what your first-grade teacher told you: Research has shown that a "clean setting" — as in, a tidy desk — might not always be the most effective way to foster creativity. "Everyone wants you to be neat," wrote Kathleen Vohs, PhD, the lead psychological scientist on one such study . "But there may be times being messy is good, too. [It leads] to something that firms, industries, and societies want more of: creativity."