Nothing raises eyebrows faster
than the idea that science can find “laws” of human behavior.
Human differences are too vast for generalizations that apply with any
exactitude to individuals. Yet hard and useful evidence about the way
most people are most likely to act most of the time is slowly being
gathered by the young “behavioral sciences” —anthropology, psychology,
sociology and related fields. Unhappily, much of the evidence is
shrouded in jargon. Happily, nonscholars may turn this week to Human
Behavior: An Inventory of Scientific Findings , the first plain-English compendium of behavioral science's
best-tested propositions. 1,045 Findings. Financed by a wide variety of sponsors, including
General Electric and the Carnegie Corporation, Human Behavior is the
massive work of two highly literate behavioral-scientists, University
of Chicago Psychologist Gary Steiner and Sociologist Bernard Berelson,
vice president of the Population Council. By sifting hundreds of case
studies and experiments, Berelson and Steiner have produced 1,045
concise findings “for which there is some good amount of scientific
evidence.” Many only give a scientific stamp to “what everybody knows,”
but others make concrete what is generally only suspected, prove folklore, or substantiate the obvious with interesting
evidence. Samples: > People see what they “need” to see. The pupil of the eye dilates on
seeing pleasant things, contracts at distasteful things. The more
ambiguous the view, the more it rouses preconceptions—as in the
Rorschach test, for example. Seeing is so subjective that coins of the
same size look bigger to poor children than to rich children.
suggestible subjects: children aged seven to eight, girls and women,
people with higher IQs. > Learning sticks better when the learner gets a fast, meaningful reward
. Rest periods make learning
more effective: six ten-minute periods of hard practice usually get
better results than one full hour. The best way to remember something
is to go to sleep right after learning it. > Within families, average intelligence rises from the first-born to the
last-born. Summer and fall babies do better in school, probably because they have a
general health advantage. Children taught two languages from the start
are handicapped in both. Although IQ scores partly reflect cultural
influence, and to that degree can be raised by training, they usually
remain quite stable after the age of six or seven. Intelligence is
mostly inherited; the problem is spurring a child to use all he has. —
Highly creative work is produced early in life—typically, in the 30s. >Psychotherapy has not yet been proved more effective than general
medical counseling in treating neurosis or psychosis. In general,
therapy works best with people who are young, wellborn, well educated
and not seriously sick. The more like the therapist, the more curable
the patient.
