So in a series of experiments, the researchers plopped a set of volunteers down in front of messy desks and a different set in front of tidy ones and tested how they behaved. In one trial, participants had to do some busy-work, then choose between a chocolate bar and an apple when they left. In another they had to devise new uses for a ping pong ball. In a third, they had to look at a menu and choose whether they wanted a vitamin boost in their smoothie, and whether that boost should be “classic” or “new.”

It seems that the desk made a difference. The tidies were twice as likely to pick up the apple on the way out as the messies—their office environment seemed to instill more discipline (to eat healthy, at least) in them. Those faced with shambolic desks, however, seemed to come up with more innovative ideas for how to re-use a ping-pong ball. (It might be salient here to gaze upon a picture of Einstein’s desk. Or Mark Twain’s—although, really, who could keep a desk that small tidy?)