The exact psychology of
the future may thus very well determine the conditions under which the
best effects for the satisfaction of economic demands may be secured,
but our present-day science is still far from such an achievement: and
it seems hardly justifiable to propose methods to-day, as it would be
like drawing a map with detailed paths for a primeval forest which is
still inaccessible.
XX
EXPERIMENTS ON THE EFFECTS OF ADVERTISEMENTS
We have said that the time has not yet come for discussing from the
standpoint of experimental psychology the means to secure the ultimate
effects of economic life, namely, the satisfaction of economic
demands. If this were the only effect which had economic significance,
this whole last part of our little book would have to remain a blank,
as we wanted to deal here with the securing of the best effects after
having studied the securing of the best man and of the best work. Yet
these ultimate ends are certainly not the only mental effects which
become important in the course of economic processes. In order to
reach that final end of the economic movement, often an unlimited
number of part processes distributed over space and time must
cooeperate. The satisfaction of our thirst in a tea-room may be a
trivial illustration of such a final effect, but it is clear that in
order to produce this ultimate mental effect of satisfying the thirst,
thousands of economic processes must have preceded.
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