Richmond times-dispatch. [volume], November 28, 1915, Image 51

About Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current

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cience Explain* &
; %$&&&%* j&tt,, rn& ?ir*rmm -
uffragetter
"
Pa
MP
30N
How the
Attractive
Charms of the
Suffragettes
Were Em
phasized in the
Recent Parade
in New York
as Compared
with the
Hodge-Podge,
Badly
Dressed,
IIl-Assorted Young and Old in the Fl rst Suffragette Parade Three Years A^o
Photo &y T H
O** f>s O p-f
Mrs. Herbert Carpenter, the Charming,
Graceful and Attractive Marsh* of
the Reccnf Parade.
The Well-Recognized Laws
of Psychology Which the
Managers of the "Votes for
Women" Campaign Are
Beginning to Learn and to
Use with Effective Results.
By Dr Ja res L Lough
Professor of Experimental Psychology in
New Yrr' University.
A SOCIOLOGY. o! distinction who fol
lowed the rc :T. suffrage campaign with
tlie Interest . the experimental scientist
remarked to me ? despite our modern at
tempts to appeal the logic and the detached
jurigment of uu . ilic young and attractive
woman was stil) t!r most direct approach to
the male voter.
The primal r. '.>ul of woman to man through
the emotions. I c thinks, has not even been
decently veneered by modern society. A jury
of men find it increasingly difficult to convict a
pretty feminine criminal. Few pretty girls, at
tractively dressed, have to remain long tin
Heated in a crowded street car. The pretty
woman knocks at a self-opening door in most
business offices. The best looking and young
est recruits are selected ut Christmas to col
lect contributions at the street corners. The
beautiful applicant with a mediocre voice cap
tures the church committee from the ugly
duckling with tte throat of angels.
The attractivefnurse draws the easiest cases
from the doctor, and, last of all, the young
and winning girl coyly beckons the suffragist
of the old school?gaunt and intellectual?
from the prominent places in the campaign,
and nonchalantly pokes her pretty face into
the fray.
? So, says my friend, the sociologist, we come
back again to a contest between man and wom
an which finds itself staged with the old fem
inine weapons of defense and attack?beauty
and the charm of fine clothes.
To an interesting extent the sociologist is
right. The emotional reaction of man '.to
feminine beauty is a matter of common ob
servation. it is a primal matter which is only
varied and not changed by the evolution of
social consciousness. The ancient response
was common acceptance In Biblical days. "He
ware of the snares of the beautiful woman" has
been thrown across the shield of fighting men
since the day of Adam. The will of the strong
man is still vulnerable in the emotions.
Solomon. Hie most profound psychologist of his
day, had read the mind of man and the beauty
of women and he knew the inevitable result of
the one-sided contest.
These phenomena are not necessarily acci
dental. They may follow well known laws of
psychology.* Briefly stated, psychology teaches
us that judgment, reason, purposes, prefer
ences are swayed and modified by external in
fluences. One of the most compelling in
fluences on mankind is the influence of beauti
ful women. History demonstrates this over
and over again. Empires and dynasties have
been made and wrecked by the skill and in
trigue of feminine charm.
Since it is true that the success of the suf
frage movement in America depends upon
I winning the approval and assistance of the
majority of the'male voters, the whole prob
lom becomes one of appeal to the individual
voter. If, therefore, feminine beauty has such
an elemental appeal, it is only the natural
thing, says the sociologist, for women to use
it in obtaining the vote. Where logic, fails,
when your carefully arranged string of argu
ments do not convince, why not show a per
fectly good smile with a cupid bow mouth and
an even row of pearly teeth?
when the straight thrust of the cold point
of intellect fails to wound, why not fall back
on the old surety of feminine beauty? It is so
much easier to use and the triumph more im
mediate. The problem, therefore, before the
suffragists of America is a problem of psy
chology.
There is evidence tha' the leaders of the
suffrage movement in America have" already
had this fact pointed out to them and are
now endeavoring to obey the laws of psy
chology which are applicable to their problem.
For forty years very little progress was made
by addresses and logical appeals made by
elderly women who had little to offer in the
way of youth and beauty and charm of per
sonality. Until the last year or two the lead
ing campaigners in the suffrage movement were,
for the most part, women sixty years old or
more! There is now evidence that these
worthy but unsuccessful leaders are being re
tired and that younger and more attractive
women are being put forward to win the cause
along the easiest way indicated by psychology.
What is this way? The simple path to
man's emotions. A cartoonist with a genius for
mob psychology recently pictured the new
technique o:' the suffragists' appeal for the
vote. He first drew a sketch of a woman of
the old school, a gaunt, disturbing female, ad
dressing a street crowd of men. She evidently
had vigor and venom, but the reaction of her
unattractive personality was evident in the
faces of the men listening. The unattractive,
the forbidding had worked through to the
mental centres and had there registered an
tagonism and retreat.
The cartoonist then drew a suffrage street,
speaker of to-day, pretty, attractively gowned
and with an appealing personality. The suc
cessful result is reflected in the attitude of
the mob.
It is not a pleasing thing to think that the
intellectual appeal of a logical, homely woman
is ineffective. Man has criticised woman as a
potential voter because he has believed that
this same emotional appeal would guide her
ballot. Woman, he has said, through her rear
ing and training is an emotional unit?a crea
ture of instinct who cannot be trusted with
the voting privilege because suffrage must
have a cold, analytical intellect behind it to
make it significant and vital. Men, they have
believed, can put aside their emotions and vote
With the right hand of judgment. Woman's
mind is a capricious affair with the emotions
holding the whip. This has been the charge.
It is interesting, because so many men do not
seem to realize that they have done much to
encourage this attitude of women. They have
kept themselves open to the direct appeal of
feminine beauty.
The psychology of the persuasive effect of a
beautiful and talented woman upon a street,
mob will supply the suffrage leaders of the old
school with plenty of thought-provoking ma
terial. At a meeting which I attended in the
last campaign 1 found a typical example. A
brisk little runabout drew up at the curb and
immediately displayed a suffrage banner. The
crowd of street men quickly collected with
?curious half smiles. There were two women
in the car. One was a young girl of about
twenty-two.
She was unusually pretty and attractive. She
had all the unconscious grace and physical con
fidence of a boy. Her place was at the wheel.
For the time being she was acti?g as a chauf
feur. The second passeuger was an elderly
woman with a sour, aggressive face, and a man*
ner that would have r&pelled any man with a
sense of humor.
The elderly passenger soon made it apparent
that she was to do the talking. When she
mounted the seat a mumble of disappointment
and disgust went through the crowd to a man.
But there was no escape. We stood heroically
tinder the lash of that woman's tongue so long
as we could stand it. and then pointed sugges
tions began to interrupt the speaker, proposing
that she let the "angel at the wheel*' say a
word or two to the gentlemen. A cheer of ap
proval followed the suggestion until finally the
woman was compelled to step down and let the
slight, pretty girl have her day in court.
To a psychologist the immediate reaction of
that mob to the pretty fresh face of feminine
youth was doubly interesting. The faces of the
men under the former speaker had been a study
in tolerant disgust. She could not arouse an
emotion strong enough to have been called an
tagonism. The mental influence had been
negative. But with the first move of the
cheery, piquant face of the girl the attitude of
the gutter crowd changed like magic.
Those men who were leaning lazily against
the wall of the saloon nearby, straightened up
with interest and respect in every line of their
faces. A man rearranged his necktie. One
big Irishman took off his hat and cautiously de
posited his chewing tobacco for future refer
ence in the palm of his hand. We all, uncon
sciously pressed close to the machine. The
girl's first unconscious appeal of youth and lif<*
and beauty was immediate in its effect. There
on the street corner by the saloon in a com
monplace street a profound psychological law
was functioning with as certain and true di
rection as though it had been dealing with the
minds of kings and scholars.
The girl had evidently been brought up In a
family of boys, and she had a good wholesome
mind. She knew how to handle a lot of men
instinctively. That helped her to got results
with her tongue. But my immediate interest
as an experimental psychologist was the un
conscious response of male suffrage to the
direct appeal of youth and feminine charm. I
say that it would have done the elder states
men of the suffrage movement a real good to
have been there and analyzed that simple in
cident. In it they might have found some sug
gestions on how to win the vote by following
the simple laws of psychology
These venerable ladies might also with bene
fit take down their psychologies from their
book shelves and study the chapters on mob
psychology. They will learn that mob-con
sciousness is always deeply stirred and swayed
by emotion. The suggestibility of a street mob
is a scientific fact. This suggestibility may be
the result of visual influence?the effect of ob
jects which carry emotional reactions through
the eyes, or it may result from any number of
approaches.
Such a writer as Boris Sidis regards the pos
. sibilities of visual suggestion in a mob to
amount to hypnotlzation. It extends at times
to sense experiences which create collective
illusions. Le Bon instinces many examples
such as the figure of St. George, who appeared
on the walls of Jerusalem to all the crusaders.
In discussing this well-known psychological
pyright, 1015. by the Star Company. Great Britain R
Photo <?> Bv J.Hal. Sr?fP?,v.
How Young Women of Attractive Appearance and Attractively Costumed Were Selected for
Conspicuous Functions in the Recent New York "Votes for Women" Parade.
appeal of feminine benuty and its suffrage application
with a well-known woman watcher who worked :is a
watcher at the pools at the recont elections, I war told
that she had proved the voters suggestibility by exact
records. In the voting districts where she placed tin little
Kill in the automobile .she received seventy-four votes for
suffrage out of a possible two hundred. The old line
political observers (experienced politicians) had told her
she could noi do better than tbreo votes to the distriet.
And all that girl did was to stand on the corner and
look pretty and hand out buttons. A number of the
' voters said after the polls were closed that they liked
the pluck and the "looks of the kid." They were not
analytical. They had not the power to trace the result
of that attractive, pretty face upon the persuasive qual
ities and functions of their minds-but they voted the
way she wanted them to. AND THAT IS THE I'OIXT
OK THE MATTER.
It is helpful to know just how it is that this appeal
lias become so vital to man. We realize that an emo
tional suggestion can master and focuB the mind of man
?noro rapidly than can the slow process of logical se
quence. The evolution of the race is much con
nected with the emotional reaction of man to the
appeal of woman. We ran traco It back to the last out
Jjjhts Reserved.
posts of anthropology. In the study of animal
intelligence we lincl parallels.
For thousands of ypars before the dawn of
modern civilizing forces man's main concern
was emotional. 11 is psychology was domi
nated by passion, by hope and desire and pride
for continuing the tribe: by fear and conster
nation in woman's defense; by jealousy and
greed in her possession; by cunning and in
trigue in iter capture. Man won his woman
through his emotions, and kept her. fed iter, pro
tected her, and succumbed to her in like man
ner. Through the curious laws of instinct and
habit iiis whole association of ideas grouped
woman i:i the emotional channel. When man
grew into a more advanced social conscious
ness he maintained this approach.
So we have the stab of the primal emotions.
This is even sharper when we play upon tho
ancient instinct of man to meet the impassioned
appeal of woman- beautiful woman?for some
hing her heart tnosr desires. The emotional
appeal, of course, will not win unsupported.
But whether it is chagrining or not we must
admit it, a beautiful woman does open up the
mind of man to marvelous persuasion. And
there the truth lies.