SIGNS OF INTELLIGENCE 



Large Head Is Not a Reliable Evidence of Superior Mentality — Conscientiousness 



More Closely Associated with Intelligence Than Any 



Other Trait so Far Measured 



DANIEL Webster's head was so 

 large that he had to have his 

 hats made to order; and he 

 was a man of great intellectual 

 ability. 



On "evidence " of this sort it has been 

 generally supposed that a large head 

 means superior mentality. But this 

 is by no means the only supposed rela- 

 tion between external physical charac- 

 ters and mental qualities. Phrenolog}^ 

 tried to build a science on these rela- 

 tions; and after phrenology was trans- 

 ferred by unanimous consent from the 

 realm of science to the realm of super- 

 stition, the task of interpreting char- 

 acter by external appearances was taken 

 over by a school, very active during the 

 last few years in the United States, 

 of "character experts." Their work, 

 which has some scientific backing, has 

 been connected rather conspicuously 

 with the movement for vocational 

 guidance and industrial efficiency. They 

 profess to be able, to some extent, to 

 tell by a man's appearance, and especi- 

 ally by an examination of his face and 

 head, what his mental talents are. 



There can be no doubt that, in a 

 limited way, character is really revealed 

 by the face. The habitual use of cer- 

 tain sets of muscles leaves lines which 

 register the most frequent emotions of 

 their bearer. But these traits are so 

 subtle and complex that they can 

 hardly be pointed out, much less meas- 

 ured; so far, therefore, they have re- 

 mained outside the field of exact 

 science. 



It is easily possible, however, to de- 

 cide by exact methods whether there 

 is any connection between a large head 

 and intelligence, because the head 

 can be measured with calipers and the 

 intelligence measured by school stand- 



ing or estimated by teachers and friends. 

 Similarly a wide range of other charac- 

 ters can be used with precision. In this 

 way large numbers of persons can be 

 studied and the average results found. 

 To cite the case of Daniel Webster as 

 having had a notably large head and 

 great intelligence does not prove that 

 the tw^o are ordinarily found together in 

 men, yet much of the supposed "evi- 

 dence" cited by those who diagnose 

 character is not worth much more than 

 that. 



KARL Pearson's study 



The problem can never be solved by 

 citing individual instances, no matter 

 how many thousands of them might be 

 collected. But it lends itself admirably 

 to treatment statistically by the correla- 

 tion method, and Karl Pearson, the 

 master of this method, has done some 

 work on it which seems to deserve being 

 brought to notice, since it was published 

 in technical form^ and has attracted 

 little attention. 



Professor Pearson's subjects were 

 about 1,000 Csmbridge University 

 undergraduates (males) and nearly 5,000 

 English school children, half boys and 

 half girls. The intelligence of each sub- 

 ject was determined by careful methods, 

 based on school standing and teachers' 

 reports, and was correlated with a 

 number of other characters of which 

 either measurements or trustworthy 

 estimates could be made. 



Taking first size of head, three 

 measurements were employed: the 

 length, the breadth, and the auricular 

 height, measured from the line of the 

 ear-openings to the top of the skull. 

 In each case there was found to be a 

 slight connection between size and 

 intelligence. But this is so small that 



1 On the relationship of intelHgence to size and shape of head, and to other mental and physical 

 characters. By Karl Pearson. Biometrika, v, pp. 105-146. London, October, 1906. 



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