Beauty here too
has strong power of attraction, and moreover the suggestive power, by
which it withdraws our senses from the chance surroundings, forces us
to lose ourselves in the offered presentation. But just through this
process the content of the display becomes isolated and separated from
the world of our practical interests. Our desires are brought to
silence, we do not seek a personal relation to the things which we
face as admiring spectators, and the intended economic effect is
therefore eliminated. Whoever is to examine the psychotechnics of
displays and exhibitions must therefore study the psychology of
aesthetic stimulation, of suggestion, of the effects of light, color,
form and movement, of apperception and attention, and ought not to
forget the psychology of humor and curiosity, of instincts and
emotions. For us the essential point is that here too the experimental
psychological method alone is able to lead from mere chance
arrangements founded on personal taste to the systematic construction
which secures with the greatest possible certainty the greatest
possible mental effect in the service of the economic purpose.
The problems of the storekeeper who arranges his windows, however,
overlap the problems of the manufacturer who prepares his goods for
the world-market, and who must from the start take care that the outer
appearance of his goods stimulate the readiness to buy.
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