Evening star., 1941-04-05
Of Stars, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory, Field
And Study
By Thomas r. Henru.

BY means of meaningless ink blots on
paper, Government psychologists are
probing the personalities of prisoners at
the United States Northeastern Peni-
tentiary at Lewisburg, Pa, where there
is choice assortment of mail robbers,
counterfeiters and other Federal law
violators.
The object is to find the differences,
if any, between the basic reactions of
criminals and non-criminals, and be-
tween different classes of prisoners
themselves.
A convict is asked to interpret the
ink blots. A blot with absolutely no
intended meaning, for instance, might
seem to one man crude picture of a
witch riding broomstick, to another a
tree with a man hanging from it. The
interpretations, especially in the variety
and kind of detail given, afford some
clue to the customary workings of the
subjects mind.
There have been some rather sur
prising findings, reports DR.. M. j. Pecor
of the United States Public Health Serv-
ice staff. In all, 476 men have been
tested. The procedure, known as the
Rorschach test, is not very reliable, Dr.
Pecor admits, and any conclusions from
it must be taken with a grain of salt
Still, he believes when it is admins
tered by some one with a good knoWl-
edge of human nature, valuable clues
are afforded
Entirely unexpected, he says, is the
difference shown between those of Ger
man and Italian descent among the
prisoners. The former have the repu-
tation of being extremely methodical
people, tending to pay great deal of
attention to detail. Actually they are
at the bottom of the list in tests which
are supposed to bring out these char
acteristics.
On the other hand, he says, the Ital-
ian prisoners show the poorest color and
motion responses. These are supposed
to indicate emotionality. This might
mean that the German, so far as he is
represented in the criminal element is
a fellow of snap judgments and that
the Italian is rather cold blooded and
practical. Variation from the racial
norms might be one cause of the GRIM
inality of these men.
Postal law violators, DR.. Pecor found,
tend to have the highest scores in nearly
all categories. They pick out lots of
unusual details in the blots. are apt to
interpret them as human figures. and
imagine a lot of color in them. They
also show greater tendency to analyze
the blots, rather than to form snap
judgments.
Dope peddlers gave the highest re-
sponses Of all for unusual details, color
and discernment of human anatomy.
Counterfeiters were especially prone to
see human figures in the blots and to
analyze them, detail by detail
The prisoners also were tested for
their reaction times. Postal law viola
tors, individuals of German descent, the
we'll educated and those with athletic
body build showed the fastest responses.
Liquor law violators, individuals with
short, stout bodies and the feeble minded
were the slowest.
On the whole, DR.. Pecor saws. the
criminals show up much more poorly
on the test than non-criminals.
Perhaps" he says, "anti-sociaI indi-
viduals are lacking in imagination They
do not care about the less tangible things
of life. What they want is something
readily perceived by the senses. such as
material wealth and possessions. The
test reveals this lack of imagery.
The tendency toward taking a birds
eye view of situation and paying little
attention to detail Is reflected in the
preponderance of the whole over detail
responses. The average prisoner does
not display logical thinking, that is,
proceeding from details to general OBJ
servation, or vice versa. He prefers to
Jump at conclusions by seeing situa-
tions as whole, or else seizes on details
without coming to any general conclu-
slons. Obviously, if he were a logical
thinker he would stop to weigh the gain
against the consequences of anti-social
behavior instead of being blinded by the
prospect of immediate profit.
THE practical absence of color and
motion responses indicates that the
average delinquent has an arrested emo
tional development. This may account
for the indifference of anti-social indi-
viduals to ethical standards set up by