cular task together with a high
ability to profit from repetition may be a better reason for the
appointment of a man than a long training with small ability to profit
from schooling, in spite of the fact that his actual achievement at
this time may be in the first case smaller than in the second. He will
do less at first, but he promises to outrank the other man after a
period of further training. Special experiments must be carried on and
have been actually started to determine this plasticity of the
psychophysical apparatus as an independent inborn trait of the
individual.[16]

This invasion of psychology into the field of economic activities is
still so little advanced that the thought of a real distribution of
the wage-earners among the various commercial and industrial positions
on the basis of psychological tests would lead far beyond the present
possibilities. Moreover, many factors would interfere with its being
carried out consistently, even if a much higher stage of experimental
research were reached. The thousands of social and local reasons which
influence the choice of a vocation to-day would to a certain degree
remain in force also in a period of better psychological analysis.
Moreover, the personal inclinations and interests naturally would and
ought to remain the mainspring of economic action. This inclination,
which gives so much of the joy in labor, is by no means necessarily
coincident with those psychophysical dispositions which insure the
most successful work. Political economists have found this out
repeatedly from their statistical inquiries. Very careful studies of
the textile industry in Germany carried out in recent years[17]
yielded the result that the intelligent, highly trained textile
laborer often dislikes his work the more, the more he shows ability
for it, this ability being measured by the wages the individuals earn
at piecework. The wage and the emotional attitude were not seldom
inversely related. Those who were able to produce by far more than
others and accordingly earned the most were sometimes the very ones
who hated the work, while the less skillful workers earned less but
enjoyed the work more. The consulting economic psychologist will,
therefore at first reasonably confine himself to warning the misfits
at an early time. Even within these limits his service can be useful
to both parties, the employers and the employees. He will only slowly
reach the stage at which this negati