Limit to Amount of Speakers Personality Which Can Be Sent Over Radio Allport Says-Harvard Psychologists Experiment

"Only certain intrinsic aspects of a speaker's personality can be transmitted by radio, if the results of recent experiments in the Psychological Laboratory can be considered representative," G. W. Allport, Assistant Professor of Psychology, said in an interview last night.

Professor Allport has been conducting research in the extent of the radio's ability satisfactorily to displace the actual presence of a lecturer at the scene of his dissertation. The Harvard Psychological Department is in possession of the only complete transmitting and receiving apparatus used ostensibly for purposes of experiment in radio psychology.

"Three men, of widely different personalities and attributes, read identical passages from Dickens over the radio from the broadcasting room laboratory, while a group of students in another room 'listened in.' Having been told that the personalities of the three speakers were ascendant, introverted, and keenly aesthetic, respectively, a majority of the listeners were able to identify the speakers by their voices.

"The experiment showed a negative result, however, in the transmission of physical attributes and the intended vocations or political views of the speakers. Photographs of the three men broadcasting were distributed among the audience, and most of the visual impressions of the group of listeners did not coincide with their aural ones. Particularly noticeable was the fact that humorous remarks seem less humorous through a loud speaker. In general, the results of the experiments thus for indicate that the voice heard from behind a curtain is slightly more revealing than the same voice over the radio.

The results of the radio psychology experiments so far indicate that the voice heard from behind a curtain is slightly more revealing than the same voice heard through the radio. The results of the experiments have not as yet been published but Professor Allport hopes to get them ready in the near future.