Analyzing Character: The New Science of Judging Men; Misfits in Business, the Home and Social LifeBlackford, Katherine M. H. (Katherine Melvina Huntsinger)
Science
Analyzing Character: The New Science of Judging Men; Misfits in Business, the Home and Social Life
Blackford, Katherine M. H. (Katherine Melvina Huntsinger)
Characters and characteristics; Success
Of 5,000 replies but 4.1 per cent were right or nearly right. Some of the
replies were astounding. One manager of a big business wrote: "This man
would be an exceptionally honest and trustworthy cashier or treasurer."
One sales manager replied: "I would like to have this man on my sales
force. He would make a hummer of a salesman, if I am any judge of men. His
hands are identical with my own," etc., etc. But the climax was reached
with this letter from a young lady: "He would be a devoted husband and
father. I would like him as a friend."
Our own analysis of this man, from photographs on a test, was as follows:
"We would not employ this man.
"He is not healthy.
"He is intelligent.
"He is not honest.
"He is not industrious.
"He is aggressive in a disagreeable way.
"We would not choose him as a friend.
"John Doe is a natural mechanic who has had very little training in that
line of work. Being exceedingly keen and intelligent, without right moral
principles, he has used his natural mechanical ability in illegitimate
lines."
Here is a brief sketch of John Doe, furnished by a gentleman who
befriended him and has followed his career for years:
"John is thirty-one years of age and has just been released from a term in
Sing Sing Prison. The crime for which he served sentence was burglary. He
made a skeleton key with which he gained access to a loft where were
stored valuable goods. He stole three thousand dollars worth of these from
his employer. He admits that he has committed other crimes of forgery and
theft. Perhaps the cleverest of these was forgery which was never
discovered. He is exceedingly friendly and makes friends easily. He is,
however, very erratic and irritable in disposition and often quarrelsome.
He is a fair example of a common type which has intelligence and skill but
has not learned to direct his activities along constructive lines."
A more complicated advertisement followed this first one, giving the
portraits of nine men, each successful in his chosen work because well
fitted for it by natural aptitude as well as by training. People were
asked to state the vocation of each. Out of 4,876 replies but three were
correct.
SOME FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS
Surely, when the untrained judgment of intelligent people goes so wide of
the mark, it is worth while to inquire whether or not science can come to
the rescue. Perhaps a brief examination of some well-established truths
about human beings will aid in finding an answer to our query.
The science of character analysis by the observational method is based
upon three very simple scientific truths:
First, man's body is the product of evolution through countless ages, and
is what it is to-day as the result of the combined effect upon it of
heredity and environment.
Second, man's mind is also the product of evolution through countless
ages, and is what it is to-day as the result of the effect upon it of the
same heredity and the same environment as have affected his body.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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