Abstract
EVERYDAY assertions of differences in character between one nation and another have for long been maintained in the face of scepticism, and the scepticism has often seemed the more scientific attitude. It is as easy to show confusions, contradictions and over–simplifications in the popular conceptions as it is difficult to find scientific proof of the real differences which, in a confused way, they may be registering. What then should be the role of a scientific treatment of the question ? Scepticism is scarcely enough. Differences of national character (in some sense of the term) have certainly not been disproved. That they have also not been proved may well reflect on the crudity of the sociological and scientific techniques at our service. In these circumstances it would seem that a proper function of scientific discussion is that of sympathetically clarifying the popular conceptions and showing what, at their most plausible, they would be, and in what directions scientific proof or disproof could most profitably be sought.
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NATIONAL CHARACTER. Nature 148, 31–33 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/148031a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/148031a0