IOO 
EMPLOYMENT PSYCHOLOGY 
of the difficulties in convincing individuals of the scientific 
significance of the psychological method. Most individ 
uals have no conception whatsoever of the statistical 
method and of the importance of basing judgments on a 
large number of cases rather than a small number of 
isolated instances. In the experience of the writer it has 
seemed as if not one business man in a hundred were able 
to free himself from the compelling magic of the isolated 
dramatic instance. Mention has already been made of 
the impression made upon a group of hard-headed business 
men by a wild guess that one of the group was a Cornell 
man. To be right with respect to a single applicant has 
sometimes done as much to convince a certain official of 
the value of tests as an entire experiment, covering forty 
or fifty individuals, and involving the most accurate and 
painstaking statistical work. On the other hand, one or 
two failures have often done more damage than a similar 
experiment could repair. 
The power of the dramatic instance—called dramatic 
because it happens at the time being to monopolize the 
entire stage in the mind of the individual—is one of the 
chief obstacles to the pioneering psychologist. “That may 
all be true;” one hears an individual say after an experi 
ment or a follow up covering fifty or a hundred applicants 
has just been explained to him, with the correlations which 
were found and the high percentage of agreement between 
the verdicts of the tests and those of the foremen or those 
obtained from actual production figures; “but there is 
Miss . Now I know her and her work very well- 
She has been with the company for five years and during 
that time has given perfect satisfaction in the place where 
she works; and yet, according to your tests, she would 
not be considered good for the work she is at. Then,