He: “Ready to go home?”
She: “Why, no—ready to do some more shopping.”
Spectator, The Outlook, December 18, 1909.
Something in motion and something to eat attract the crowd.
The social worker is just beginning to realize what the manufacturer and the department storekeeper have long since found out.
Why is it not legitimate to “attract a crowd,” to do them a good service in showing them how to save money as well as in impelling them to spend it? It is wiser to show how before explaining why.
The force of example, the power of suggestion, should be used fully before coercion is applied. Exhibits and models come before law.
The psychology of influence is an interesting study (see Münsterberg’s article, McClure’s, November, 1909). Its principles have been grasped and used by those who exploit human feelings for their own gain. The student of social conditions should make a wider and better use of a real force.
Publicity is perhaps first. Exhibits showing existing conditions often shock people into attention, for it is inattention more than anything else that prevent betterment.
It is said that “a knowledge of danger is the surest means of guarding against it,” but this knowledge must be translated into belief and the danger be brought home to the individual as a member of the community.