Playing sound effects both pleasant and awful, Julian Treasure shows how sound affects us in four significant ways. Listen carefully for a shocking fact about noisy open-plan offices.

Link: [Julian Treasure: The 4 ways sound affects us

Video on TED.com]1

In this 5 minutes video, Julian Treasure demonstrates in a compelling way how sound affects us in these 4 ways:

• physiological
• psychological
• cognitive
• behavioral

He claims that productivity in an open-plan work environment is reduced by as much as 66%. In other words, you are 1/3 as productive as you would be in a quiet environment.

He also demonstrates how listening to the sounds of waves and chirping birds helps us relax.

I find this connection of science and what is often considered “touchy feely fluffy stuff” very compelling. Turns out that both approaches have their merits.