Le Bon became interested in the emerging field of anthropology in the 1870s and travelled throughout Europe, Asia and North Africa. Influenced by Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer and Ernst Haeckel, Le Bon supported biological determinism and a hierarchical view of the races and sexes; after extensive field research, he posited a correlation between cranial capacity and intelligence in Recherches anatomiques et mathématiques sur les variations de volume du cerveau et sur leurs relations avec l'intelligence (1879), which earned him the Godard Prize from the French Academy of Sciences. During his research, he invented a portable cephalometer to aid with measuring the physical characteristics of remote peoples, and in 1881 published a paper, "The Pocket Cephalometer, or Compass of Coordinates", detailing his invention and its application.
Le Bon became interested in the emerging field of anthropology in the 1870s and travelled throughout Europe Asia and North Africa Influenced by Charles Darwin Herbert Spencer and Ernst Haeckel Le Bon supported biological determinism and a hierarchical view of the races and sexes; after extensive field research he posited a correlation between cranial capacity and intelligence in Recherches anatomiques et mathématiques sur les variations de volume du cerveau et sur leurs relations avec l'intelligence (1879) which earned him the Godard Prize from the French Academy of Sciences During his research he invented a portable cephalometer to aid with measuring the physical characteristics of remote peoples and in 1881 published a paper "The Pocket Cephalometer or Compass of Coordinates" detailing his invention and its application