Bright Idea

I was staring at a bare light bulb the other night but unfortunately no great ideas came to mind.

From Miller-McCune...

A research team at Tufts University conducted a series of experiments. In one, 79 college students were given three minutes to solve a spatial problem. Just before leaving the room an experimenter remarked, “It’s a little dark in here” and turned on either a lamp with an unshaded 25-watt bulb or an overhead fluorescent light. Forty-four percent of those exposed to the bare bulb solved the problem in the allotted time, compared to 22 percent of those sitting under the florescent fixture...

...A different group of students took the same test while being exposed either to the bare, glowing 25-watt light bulb mentioned earlier, or to a shaded 40-watt bulb. Those exposed to the less powerful but unshaded bulb solved more triads correctly.

Together, the studies suggest exposure to an bare, glowing light bulb stimulates mental processes that lead to insights. Perhaps our brains are responding to a familiar symbol; perhaps the symbol retains its meaning because it reflects the way our brains operate. Either way, one thing is clear: All those cartoons where a light bulb goes off over someone’s head were apparently a more literal reflection of reality than we realized.