Life — May 25, 1922 — page 10: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis of Life Magazine Page This page contains satirical commentary on pseudo-scientific personality theory. The main article, "The New Bone-Dust Theory of Behavior," mocks the popular early-20th-century belief that facial features and physical characteristics determined personality and morality. The diagrams show bones and anatomical details supposedly revealing character traits. The article ridicules this determinism by noting absurd conclusions—that bent elbows mean criminality, for instance. The lower section, "Mild Animals I Have Met," presents humorous animal caricatures with personality quotes (a pup, deer, and tiger), seemingly extending the bone-dust theory to animals. The satire targets pseudoscientific racism and phrenology-adjacent theories that were then used to justify social hierarchies and prejudice by claiming physical features scientifically proved moral or intellectual differences.