Word: psychologist
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...thoroughly does a man give himself away by his facial expression, his voice, the way he walks? Much more than he suspects, says Psychologist Werner Wolff of Bard College, Columbia University...
...Science. From this phase of his experiments, Psychologist Wolff drew a few significant conclusions: since everyone has some conflicting traits, which show up in contradictions in his appearance, a person's character can be read much more reliably from a combination of elements than from any single one (such as the face or handwriting); actors and artists, who relied on a general impression, were better at character-reading than scientists or philosophers, who relied more on analysis...
...confesses that he stumbled on this line of investigation when he walked into a dressing room in a tailor shop one day, found himself confronted by a strange man, fled. It turned out that he had seen himself in a mirror. Thereupon Psychologist Wolff began to confront his guinea pigs with their own pictures and records (mingled with others), with surprising results: only one in ten recognized his own recorded voice, most failed to recognize their own profiles, hands, mirrored hand writing, or speaking rhythm. Half failed to identify their storytelling style. But perversely, every person recognized his own gait...
Reaction. Psychologist Wolff noted some striking facts about his guinea pigs' unconscious self-analysis : when they failed to recognize themselves, they reacted much more strongly to their own voices or features than to others'. They emphatically liked or disliked their own features (usually they liked them), discussed them more volubly and emotionally if they did not recognize them. Dr. Wolff concluded that unconsciously these self-critics did recognize themselves, and their self-criticisms, which often differed in degree but not in kind from the judgments of their fellows, represented their subconscious appraisals of themselves...
...Psychologist Wolff reports that this finding was confirmed by an anthropologist studying African savages. The anthropologist photographed Kais tribesmen, who had never seen themselves in a mirror, and showed them the pictures. One tribesman, when he saw himself, screamed: "Kill this disgusting animal...