AVERAGE MAN

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 July 1927, Page 10

AVERAGE MAN

AN INGENIOUS ANALYSIS. Superstitious, ill-educated, conventional, and mentally equal to a four-teen-year-old. the average man, as discovered by the methods of science, does not show up up well according to Lorine Pruttc, writing in the New York ‘Times.’ Dr. Hollingwortli, a Columbia psychologist has drawn a composite portrait, of conn!less records and statistics from many thousands of men and women who have submitted to tests like those given in the Army during (he World War although pessimistic deductions from the army psychological tests, it is pointed out. overlook fine qualities revealed only in the sterner tests of actual life. Life insurance companies. the United States army and navy, police departments. schools and colleges have collected a quantity of data bearing on the physical measurements of men. Since the wholesale application of mental tests statistics have been piling up in this field as well. Public schools and colleges have instituted systems of testing, and a number of college entrance boards arc co-oper-ating on the use of standardisation of a common test. Measurement of all sorts of persons for all sorts of purposes continues. Ten years from now we shall undoubtedly know more about the average man than we do to-day; but this increased knowledge will bo in the direction of more detail rather than in upsetting conclusions. Our fellow-citizen, the average man is, of course, an abstraction, a central point that we all approach to some extent. But his picture is no spirit photograph. It reveals a close kinship to each of us human beings. His portrait follows; — “At the age of fifty-three or earlier the average man will die. In the time of the Romans he did not live nearly as long. Whatever the length of his life, the average man will spend about cne-tb.’id of it in sleep. “In weight the average man e.-mes to al out 1501 b. He is about 57in tall, Under his skull he carries a brain that weighs about 1,300 grammes. This is nothing for him to boast of, since there are jersons carrying around a brain weighing over 2000 grammes. The difference between the brain of the average man and of there otlmr persons is more than twice the oii’ference between the brains of the great apes and of the lowest human beings. On the other hand, the brain of the average man weighs more (han twice as much as does the brain of (he great ape which averages about 600 grammes.

“The average man has a pulse rate of about seventy a minute. His vocabulary includes about 7,500 words. He can probably tell you what is meant by ‘nerve,’ but he will have difficulty with ‘coinage’; he understands ‘insure’ and ’shrewd’ but be is not clear about ‘dilapidated’ and ‘philanthropy.’ lie may know from actual experience but cannot explain the difference between poverty and misery. He cun give three differences between a president and a king, but the difference between evolution and revolution seems to him not worth mentioning. “If he has a whole minute for the problem he will get the correct answer when asked how many pencils can be bought for 50 cents if two pencils cost 5 cents. He can also find out how much 7ft of cloth will cost at 15 cents a yard. But he is completely lost when asked how many boxes there are in a. collection in which one large box holds four small boxes each containing four smaller ones. He can repeat seven numbers lie hears, but if asked to repeat eight, leaves out one of them. He can repeat simple sentences, such as: ‘lt is nearly half-past 1 o’clock; the house is very quiet, and the cat has gone to sleep.’ But if complicated instructions are given him, he will not be able to remember them all.

"The average man leaves school at the eighth grade. He has a smattering of local geography and knows a little bit about history and a few elementary facts of physiology. In spite of the fact that he is to be accepted as a citizen, he has rio general knowledge of civics, sciences, politics, or lierature. He is able to speak one language only. On a standardised intelligence test he makes about the same score as does ail average boy of fourteen. He never develops the intelligence required for satisfactory high school work. “In industry he is likely to drift into the skilled trades, but is not likely to have an occupation superior to that of his father. After a short period of training he can become a plumber, a carpenter, a mechanic. He marries at an early age, and has from three to five children. This family he brings up on an income that until very recently was not more than 1,000 dollars a year.

“He belives a lot of nonsense and superstition. He does not take a great interest in religion, although he has very set ideas about morality. He has a great respect for ‘common sense,’ and is quite convinced that he possesses it in a high degree. His conversation with his fellows consists largely in an exchange of personalities and comments about the weather.

“This average man has firm, though unjustifiable convictions about the causes of health and disease, and he readily prescribes for any known ailment. If he has heard of evolution he thinks that Darwin held men to be 'descended from monkeys. He has definite theories about the best time in which to plant crops, in the dark of the moon or in the light; and he has made some observations about thunder and lightning, such as ‘lightning never strikes twice in the same place.’ He is u. Democrat and a Methodist, or a Republican and a Baptist, because bis father was. It is not difficult to convince him that the spirit world communicates directly with us, and one or two coincidences are sufficient to convince him that thought transference is possible. It will give him a certain pleasure to think that there are mysterious persons who can ‘read your mind.’ He. falls a prey to quack character analysts, mediums, salesmen with unsound investments, and the i like. Beyond his trade he never knows anything very thoroughly. And yet he has a great influence in determining what the next generation will be like.”