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It鈥檚 a chocoholic鈥檚 fantasy: to land a job in a chocolate factory surrounded by praline truffles and toffee mallow. But not everyone鈥檚 cut out for a career among the raspberry roulades and coffee creams. In 1922, chocolate manufacturer Seebohm Rowntree was so keen to find the right people to pack his products that he hired a psychologist鈥攁 first for British industry. Standard psychological tests were of little use in choosing chocolate-packers. So the Rowntree鈥檚 psychologist invented new ones. The 鈥渇ormboard selection test鈥�, now on display at London鈥檚 Science Museum, required candidates to fit 40 coloured wooden shapes into a board in the correct sequence, working against the clock. It was crude but effective and remained in use for more than 30 years.

Before long, Rowntree鈥檚 found another application for psychology: designing a more sophisticated brand of chocolates to woo chocolate-lovers away from its great rival Cadbury. The result was Black Magic. The dark chocolates with the soft centres were an instant hit, but the secret behind their creation embarrassed the company and the story was quietly buried.

SEEBOHM ROWNTREE was one of the biggest names in chocolate. He was also a renowned Quaker with progressive ideas about workers鈥� welfare. Charles Myers was one of the biggest names in psychology. He was famous for transforming psychology from an airy-fairy branch of mental philosophy into a rigorous experimental science. Both men believed psychology was the answer to many of industry鈥檚 problems. Together, they invented industrial psychology.

When the First World War broke out Myers went to France, only to discover that as far as the army鈥檚 doctors were concerned, psychological illnesses didn鈥檛 exist. He argued that traumatised soldiers were suffering from what he called shell shock, and defended them at court martial. Some were acquitted. Others were executed, a fact that haunted Myers.

After the war, Myers returned to Cambridge fired with enthusiasm to apply psychology to medicine, industry and education. But again he found the Establishment reluctant to accept psychology as a science. So he abandoned academia and drew up plans for a National Institute of Industrial Psychology, where he could pursue his own ideas.

In the immediate post-war period, shortage of materials and unemployment were causing enormous friction in British commercial life. Myers believed that psychology could oil the wheels of industry to benefit both capitalist and labourer. The NIIP鈥檚 aim would be to find ways to improve the lives of workers, while improving their productivity. The institute would be scientific, impartial and commercially neutral.

One of the first people Myers approached for backing was Rowntree. The great Quaker industrialist believed that workers who were looked after by their employers would repay the benevolence. In 1906, he had persuaded the family firm to introduce a pension plan for its workers, and during the First World War, as head of the welfare department at the Ministry of Munitions, he had discovered that workers were more productive if they worked fewer hours and were given rest breaks. Following the end of the war, his firm introduced a five-day working week. He agreed to help Myers.

At that time the confectionery trade, unlike most industries, was growing fast. The management of Rowntree鈥檚 Cocoa Works in York was keen to use scientific methods to improve efficiency and promote welfare at work. Industrial psychology would continue what Quakerism had started.

On Myers鈥檚 advice, Rowntree hired a psychologist called Victor Moorrees. His job was to 鈥済ive advice to those existing workers who feel they are round pegs in square holes, and to select those suited for particular posts鈥�. He would also be 鈥渁n expert adviser in motion study, fatigue study, and the effects of monotony in occupation鈥�.

Moorrees discovered that standard psychological tests and lab equipment weren鈥檛 much use in a factory and set about designing new ones. 鈥淎ll our apparatus is home-made, and as simple as it can possibly be,鈥� he explained. A prime example was the Moorrees formboard selection test in which prospective chocolate-packers raced to fit the assorted shapes into the box.

Pleased with Moorrees鈥檚 work, Rowntree agreed to sponsor a pioneering study that applied psychology to market research. Rowntree was particularly impressed with the ideas of a young psychologist at the NIIP called Nigel Balchin. Today Balchin is best remembered as author of The Small Back Room, and as the man who invented the terms 鈥渂offins鈥� and 鈥渂ackroom boys鈥�. In the 1930s, Balchin鈥檚 chief literary achievement was How to Run a Bassoon Factory, a satire on industrial psychology.

Balchin鈥檚 main criticism of the Rowntree鈥檚 approach was that the company rarely considered customers鈥� needs when it developed new products. Design was determined by stuffy conventions, he complained, 鈥渂y the opinion of factory experts, by manufacturing limitations鈥攊n fact by anything but the view of the man who was expected to buy鈥�.

Balchin argued that before launching a new product, the company should find out more about the psychology of the people who were going to buy them. 鈥淚f our main market consists of intellectually self-conscious, upper middle-class women,鈥� he wrote, 鈥渨e shall do no good at all with a label representing Highland cattle at sunset.鈥�

In the early 1930s, the country鈥檚 favourite box of assorted chocolates was Cadbury鈥檚 Dairy Milk. Rowntree鈥檚 needed something to compete with its great rival. Perhaps psychology could help? So in July 1932 Rowntree鈥檚 board of directors sanctioned 拢3000 for an NIIP investigation into the market for chocolate assortments. Balchin鈥檚 team interviewed 7000 consumers.

The psychologists discovered that most chocolates were bought by men for women. They learned that most people preferred a simple, abstract design on the box rather than cute kittens or pretty flowers. They also realised that it might be a good idea to include a chart in the box identifying which chocolates had which centres.

What emerged from the research was an assortment of dark chocolates with soft centres in a box with an artistic design in silver and black. Black Magic was the first box of chocolates that relied on its own virtues and name rather than the name of Rowntree. It was a winner and helped to revive the company鈥檚 flagging fortunes. It also paved the way for KitKat, Aero and Smarties. All were developed using the techniques pioneered with Black Magic.

Black Magic was arguably one of industrial psychology鈥檚 greatest triumphs, but its creation had compromised the ideals of commercial neutrality that underpinned the NIIP. Black Magic was a commercial product鈥攁nd a very successful one鈥攖hat had been developed with the help of research carried out by the institute. Worse, Cadbury had been giving the institute 拢700 a year, but its rival was getting ahead as a result of its efforts. Despite the financial rewards it so clearly promised, Myers banned any further commercially sensitive research and the story of the birth of Black Magic was buried in the archives.