andwriting
experts, but even psychiatric specialists have had to undergo
repeatedly in sensational court trials. The day for the expert
activity in the courtroom will came for the psychologist only when the
country has attached the expert to the court and has eliminated the
expert retained by the plaintiff or the defendant. But this general
practical question as to the position of the psychologist in the
courtroom and as to the need of a psychological laboratory in
connection with the courts would lead us too far aside.

XXIII

BUYING AND SELLING

The effects which we have studied so far were produced by inanimate
objects, posters or displays, advertisements or labels and packings.
The economic psychotechnics of the future will surely study with
similar methods the effects of the living commercial agencies.
Experiments will trace the exact effects which the salesman or
customer may produce. But here not even a modest beginning can be
discovered, and it would be difficult to mention a single example of
experimental research. The desired psychological influences of the
salesman are not quite dissimilar to those of the printed means of
propaganda. Here, too, it is essential to turn the attention of the
customer to different points, to awaken a vivid favorable impression,
to emphasize the advantages of the goods, to throw full light on them,
and finally to influence the will-decision either by convincing
arguments or by persuasion and suggestion. In either case the point is
to enhance the impulse to buy and to suppress the opposing ideas. Yet
every one of these factors, when it starts from a man and not from a
thing or paper, changes its form. The influence becomes narrower, it
is directed toward a smaller number of persons; but, on the other
hand, it gains just by the new possibility of individualization. The
salesman in the store or the commercial traveler adjusts himself to
the wishes, reactions, and replies of the buyer. Above all, when it
becomes necessary to direct the attention to the decisive points, the
personal agent has the possibility of developing the whole process
through a series of stages so that the attention slowly becomes
focused on one definite point. The salesman observes at first only the
general limits of the interest of the customer as far as it is
indicated by his reactions, but slowly he can find out in this whole
field the region of strongest desires. As soon as he has discovered
this