INTUITION.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19156, 12 November 1927, Page 13

INTUITION.

' WOMAN'S SUPERIORITY. A CLAIM CHALLENGED. Ontou oxa oTfs cobsksposdext.} LONDON, September 21. In the Psychology Section of the British Association, Professor C. "V 1 *- al " entine read a paper on ''The Comparative Reliability of Intuitive Judgments of Men and Women."' There was, hesaid, widespread belief in the possibility of intuitive judgments _of character and in women's superiority in this respect. Indeed, the superiority ot women's intuitions is sometimes held to apply to all kinds #>f judgments, and to be apparently a compensation for a supposed weakness in reasoning. Mr Baldwin, in advocating the extension of the franchise to women of 21, said: ''l have not a profound confidence in feminine .logics, but I have in feminine instinct." So far as the superiority of women's intuitions was held to be a compensation for weak logic, women were unlikely to regret it it it could be demonstrated. as he believed it could be, that this popular idea of her superior intuitions was a myth. In everyday affairs people relied on immediate impressions to a surprising degree and tended to cling to first impressions. The judging of photographs was altogether unreliable for coming to such decisions. Although women often judged people by photographs, experiments had shown that judgments, based on photographs, varied greatly. A well-known dramatic critic had been judged from his photograph to be a. very gentle chap but not witty, and by another person as sarcastic and cruel. A murderer vas judged to have Letter moral qualities altogether than the. very respectable editor of a very respectable _ review. Tests carried out in which university men and women graduates were_ asked to judge the character of some children from immediate impressions showed that the more they relied upon pure and immediate intuition the more_ worthless their judgments were. The judges were practically unanimous in saying that the boys' characters were easier to judge than the girls'. The reason given was that boys gave themsekes away easier. The rehowever, proved that this was a delusion, as all the judges actually nudged the girls more accurately than the boys. Good Headers of Character. Naturally, there have been some comments on the Professor's sweeping conclusions. "The last word has not been said on the subject of intuition," said Dr. Estelle Cole, a prominent woman psychologist. "Science and the now psychology do not admit intuition, but because we do not know anything about it we need not deny it. A lot of women are extremely intuitive, and extremely good readers of character. That is why they are so good at business. Women certainly do have impressions. When a woman has some feeling about another person it is a projection of what she has been thinking in her own mind about the other." Alluding to Professor Valentine's experiments, in which he got University women to judge great men and great criminals from their photographs only to find that women did not sum up characters accurately, shr said that with greater opportunities for training and education women's intuitive powers would probably diminish. Intuition had nothing to do with rea- J son. When women wore invariably intellectual their intuitive ability Was in I abeyance. ! Dr. William Brown, the prominent j psychologist, comments: — "The intuitive gifts of women have certainly been exaggerated. Noverthe- i less, I should not care to tlltow ovor entirely the theory of women's intuition. Women's judgment of one another is better than their judgment of men, which is not very good. You can trust one woman to sum up another. Women understand their own sex. If one thinks of another aspect of intuition — the art senses-women do not seem to have it. They are more imitative, more conservative than men, and not so original. They are more tied down by the status quo and right thing to do. Their insight is blinded by that. There is a biological explanation for it —the woman has to consider the welfare of the family." '.'Women's logic is not very good, but it is very much better than it used to be." "Photographs were used by Professor Valentine in his experiments, and they are rather difficult to judge by," he added. "I would not care to submit my powers of intuition and • judgment to such a test. One judges so much by movement and expression. Temperament is destiny. If you can sum up a person's temperament you can predict the kind of life he will have. Anyone, man or woman, who can judge temperament will be good at predicting the future. There is such a thing as intuition, whieh members of both sexes may possess. Some people call it 'sympathetic insight,' and others 'unconscious guessing without giving reasons.' I should not care to say that women's intuition consisted of 'unconscious guessing.' " Women Own Up. Mrs Rosita Forbes, the intrepid explorer, says:—"A man is more accurate than a woman about many things. He would sacrifice his life rather than ad--lit a mistake. A woman is more intuitive. She is more impulsive. She makes mistakes, just as he does, but she owns up to them. A man is influenced in the treatment of his friends by publie opinion. A woman sticks to hers whatever other people say." Mrs Cecil Chesterton considers that "woman's intuition is generally right. If she makes up her mind she does not like a person, the impulse is usually 1 safe. She often sticks to her mis- , takes, but so do the men."