Evening Star Newspaper, March 30, 1930, Page 91

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. —_——— — [-J AN 2 il > &74 Masculine handwriting fd/(/(l/wc 4,’0, 7~ Feminine handwriting 04»«4&/”%% by o *Sexless” handwriting Sex is somewhat indicated by handwrit- ing, but you can tell it yourself just as w_eu as an expert, and custom governs the gender of penmanship more than personal characteristics. BY EMILY C. DAVIS HEN you sign your name with a flourish or with a steady, pushing evenness, you are tell- ing the world something about yourself—but what? - Science sees no good in attempts to read character in the bumps on your head. It refuses to believe that red-haired people are by inference fiery-tempered. Nevertheless sci- ence cautiously thinks there may be something significant in handwriting. Rather slowly and quietly the significant facts about handwriting in relation to person- ality are being discovered. The scientific dise coveries are sweeping away the glib character readings of the handwriting fortune teller. One of the psychologists who is doing much to put the science of handwriting on solid ground is a woman, Dr. June Downey, pro- fessor of psychology at the University of Wy- oming. At a recent meeting of psychologists Dr. Downey reported to an interested audience her latest discoveries as to what it means to write backhand. Now, graphologists, who read character from handwriting have always maintained that the siant of your handwriting is a barometer of your emotional traits; if you write a straightly vertical hand you are a person of normal emo- tional makeup, not readily excitable, moderate- 1y responsive; if your handwriting slants far forward it is supposed to betoken eagerness, and warm affection, whereas a slant to the left indicates reserve and coldness, an anti-social nature. Psychologists long ago pointed out a feeble link in this line of reasoning, for left-handed people are most frequently addicted to back- hand writing, and surely lefthandedness does not imply a chilly attitude toward the world. S8till, there remained to be accounted for a large number of right-handed people who push a backhand pen. WONDERING if these right-handed individ- ‘"7 uals could be left-handers in disguise, Dr., Downey questionnaired about 700 of her right- handed acquaintances and found that 4 per cent of them wrote backhand. At the meeting she reported to the psychologists that she has snalyzed 45 of these supposedly right-handed bankhand writers and has found that some of them had been left-handed babies who were taught to use the right hand. Some were ambidextrous, using both hands for - skilled tasks. Fully 60 per cent of the backhand writ- ers had a dominant left eye, or depended on the two eyes impartiaily. Hence an urge to write backhand need not make you fear that you have a heartless and chilly nature. It means more probably that -you have a tendency to be left-handed, which may have been long ago suppressed by well meaning parents, or more probably still, you have a tendency to be left-eyed. [ EN the graphologist proceeds by the easy way of superficial analogy and argues that the individual who puts generous flourishes on his g's will also be generous in his dealings with his neighbor, or asserts that loops running high above the base line indicate - asperation, and that loops extending far below the line show materialistic tendencies. “Such deduction fails to analyze the writ- ing movement. It does not explain how a motor habit can be an index to a mental dis- position. Nor does it satisfactorily link graphic speed, rhythm and form with the phases of personality, for very little is known about these matters.” The complexity of the problem has been shown by evidence that a trait of handwriting, such as large letters, may be due to bad eye- sight, mental disease, or from imitating some one else’s dashing style. Further, an individ- ual’s writing varies from day to day with the effects of weariness, excitement, weather con~ ditions, lighting arrangements, unconscious im- ftation or drugs. X C., MARCH 30, 1i930. Inventor Edison. Science doubts that even such very distinctive handwriting as his really reveals character. How Science Has Checked Up on the Graph- ologists, Who Say They Can Read Your Character by Your Penmanship. ST!LL Dr. Downey and other psychologists believe that there may be some law and order in handwriting as an expression of inner conditions, and they hope that some day a usable set of facts may be developed. As Dr. Downey and other scientists have tested some of the ideas of graphology, they have blasted a good many of the most widely accepted notions. Their studies of handwriting in compearison with the personalities of many Finish ~«— Start Start ——> Finish o Left hand W Wasks An easy way lo writc with both hands simultancously Start ——» Finish Right hand people reveal that heavy strokes of the pen do not necessarily go with a forceful person- ality. Nor can upsloping lines of writing safely be interpreted as an outward sign of confidence or ambition. Nor do people who cross their t's with long bars have plenty of perseverance. Employers seeking go-getter salesmen take a long chance in relying on impressive signatures of applicants. On the other hand, Dr. Downey did find Try it yourself. This young lady is writing with both hands at once, and doing it the hard way, writing from the margin of the paper toward the center, L Wishing o PG . O ki) £t iend Left hand The hard way to write with both hands simultaneously Right hand W slrassmoly iy and aadliwW:" " Bad penman Shakespeare. Only six of his scrawling autographs have been found, and no actual portrait is known, though this engraving is thought to be from a sketch from life. that people who are preoccupied with detalls are apt to turn out small, fine writing. She also found that people with what she terms an “explosive” temperament, that is, readily ex- pressive persons, have a style of writing that is more light and flowing than people who are “inhibitive,” or over-repressed, by temperament. This particular finding she considers the most promising discovery of temperament a§ ex- pressed in handwriting so far made. LFRED BINET, noted French psychologist, gained the confidence of graphologists : sufficiently to test their success and failure in reading certain facts from handwriting. “His experiments show that it is possible mguesstheueofnpenmanwlthm;hout ten years from his writing,” Dr. Downey de- clares. “But the possibility of ten years' error in the ordinary lifetime range of threescore years and ten would render this valueless in any practical situation, such as estimating the age of a kidnaper or a thief who might have left an incriminating note.” One difficulty in reading an individual’s age precisely from his writing is that some people continue to write a childish fist long after they are away from copybook influences. * This does not mean that they are immature, Dr. Downey explained. Far from it. Intellectu- ally precocious young men with this peculiarity have come to her attention. She tentatively explains their cases by suggesting that people whose writing matures late are of a “sensory makeup.” They are of the thinking, inactive type which is sensitive to the impressions of sight, hearing and touch, from the outer world, and which is more likely to excel at brain work than at phy- sical skill. Those whose writing matures early, on the contrary, are of a “motor make-up,” she believes. These would be people of an ac- tive type, using the hands and the rest of the body with ease and skill. uBmzr and other investigators have also - shown that it is possible to tell the sex of a penman with considerable accuracy,” De, Downey continues. “They call attention, how- ever, to the fact that some women write a dis< tinctly masculine hand, and a few men write & feminine hand. An occasional individual write® what we may call a sexless hand.” It is a debatable point, she believes, the dee gree to which sex in handwriting is due to inner traits of the penman or to the outer in- fluence of established social codes. Society looks indulgently upon a scrawling male signature. But women are expected to write a neat and pleasing script, and usually try, she potafls out. Your own estimate of age and sex based on handwriting is about as good as any ‘“experts,” the experiments indicate. Binet found that ex- perience in studying handwriting did not give an advantage in such judgments. The same was found to be true in a very recent test at a California State teachers’ college. In this case amateur judges gave their opinion of sex repre- sented by penmanship samples, and the guesses ran up a score of two out of three correct. These judges associated with masculine writing such traits as irregularity, uneven form, angles and individual slant. Feminine writing was characterized by regularity, curves, conven- tional form and uniformity. Curious changes take place .in the hand- writing of individuals suffering from diseases, and “experts” too hasty in applying a little un- tested knowledge have not hesitated to say that a doctor could diagnose a patient’s condition from day to day by examining a current piece of his handwriting sent to the doctor’s office. Mental diseases appear to set a particularly nosinatin 2id zamt haadaad oty baw nucd, gt JNicteenih Page