Almost everyone that considered themselves scientifically minded and rational at the dawn of the 20th century was an eugenicist, bad genetics was considered a real concern and danger to address. Doesn’t mean they all were straight up Nazis but it was one of the big fashionable positivist beliefs.
To the extent that the effect is as big as you’re making it out to be (surely it’s “big”, IDK the exact magnitude though), this seems to be mostly explainable by people trying to apply their new great toy to everything around them. A man with a hammer sees everything as a nail etc.
Almost everyone that considered themselves scientifically minded and rational at the dawn of the 20th century was an eugenicist, bad genetics was considered a real concern and danger to address. Doesn’t mean they all were straight up Nazis but it was one of the big fashionable positivist beliefs.
To the extent that the effect is as big as you’re making it out to be (surely it’s “big”, IDK the exact magnitude though), this seems to be mostly explainable by people trying to apply their new great toy to everything around them. A man with a hammer sees everything as a nail etc.
Sure, my main point was “it doesn’t say much about someone of the time other than they were buying into a fad”.