Empathy Quotient

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It's an empathy test. It was designed to measure empathy.

Yeah, I know.

I guess I thought too much about one of the questions there. Highly unusual, lol.

Care and empathy aren't related.

You scored quite high for someone with AS, so you "should" be able to feel the emotions of those around you to some extent, when you haven't experienced the causative agent that made the emotion in them. Can you do this?

A question that I didn't quite understand:

4. I find it difficult to explain to others things that I understand easily, when they don't understand it first time. (I don't understand the question)

What do the questions below have anything to do with empathy?

53. I don't like to take risks.

47. I would be too nervous to go on a big roller coaster.

45. I often start new hobbies but quickly become bored with them and move on to something else.
40. I can't relax until I have done everything I had planned to do that day.

33. I enjoy having discussions about politics.

24. I like to do things on the spur of the moment.

23. I think that good manners are the most important thing a parent can teach their child.

20. I tend to have very strong opinions about morality.

17. I live life for today rather than the future.

16. I prefer practical jokes to verbal humour.

13. I would never break a law, no matter how minor.

9. I am at my best first thing in the morning.

5. I dream most nights.

3. I try to keep up with the current trends and fashions.

Thanks catspurr! I took probably the most borderline question there and questioned it's relevance, probably not a good way to go about proving a point. Glad I'm not alone in feeling this way about the test.

My empathy according to this test is average.

33.

My empathy is kind of strange though.

catspurr,

#4 just means that once you've explained something to someone, and they don't understand what you mean, you find it hard to word it in a way that they'll understand the next time as you only know one way to explain it (you explain it how you innately understand it--lacking in empathy is not being able to formulate it in a way that they can understand it).

Many of those are related to AS and its "rigid thinking", which is thought to stem from problems with empathy. Most are related to empathy, but I couldn't be bothered explaining it (too tired), and explaining it would probably give it away anyway (so people will know which answer points towards one way or another, which will lead to bias), so it's no fun then.

Your score: 14
0 - 32 = low (most people with Asperger Syndrome or high-functioning autism score about 20)
33 - 52 = average (most women score about 47 and most men score about 42)
53 - 63 is above average
64 - 80 is very high
80 is maximum

13 woohhoo...means nothing lol

I score reasonably for an aspie (35) , but I still dont feel the emotions of others around me. Its more that I have developed feelings regarding people-related events where before there were none, but the feelings still happen independently of other people, I still dont feel and absorb others emotions, I just have more of my own reactions.

I dont think I will ever have an NT's empathy no matter how much social skills I study, because my emotional reactions are still one-way.

I dont know if that makes any sense or not.

Last edited by zen_mistress on 10 Aug 2008, 3:10 am, edited 1 time in total.

This time I scored 2. Usually it's 2-4 depending on my mood.

People have wondered about the questions that don't seem to have anything to do with empathy. From what I gather there are some questions on the quiz that don't affect the scoring at all, they're meant just to obfuscate the test so that those who want to manipulate their results by guessing which answer scores how much are thrown off track.

Well OK so what is empathy? How can one expect to telepathically feel what others are feeling? Does a low score indicate possesing a realistic understanding of how communication works? How are people supposed to understand each other without putting their thoughts into words and speaking clearly enough to be understood?

One of my friends tells me he can read what people intend with about 80% accuracy. This claim is untestable because he still only knows his own experience. How in the hell is someone supposed to gather detailed knowledge about people in a room, such as who is having affairs with whom, from nuances of facial expression and whatnot? Could it be that they really don't know either, and we know that we don't know, but at least we know that?

From the questions of the test, empathy is defined as having an understanding of how finer communication works and being able to use that understanding successfully.

Because this test itself doesn't ask how you know/do what you do - whether you feel another's emotion, know their feelings by analysis or whatever strategy you have.

Maybe that's something most autistic people do lack. The mere experience and understanding from not perceiving these nuances. If people don't look into and follow people's eyes, how would they know where the other's eyes look, how fast they move, how often they look away, where they suddenly look for tiny amounts of time, whether they seem to be focussed or unfocussed...?

Interesting enough, if you ask a non-autistic and typical person how they know a person is shy, uncomfortable or teasing - they usually answer they just 'know'. They don't say that they read it from what the person said, from their eyes, hands or their tone of voice, but they just say they 'know it'.

For the first time on this site, I don't understand the above statement. It's not even an argument -- I just don't get it. Maybe it's a definition question. What is "empathy?"
I scored high because I'm older than dirt and I've been working on it.
My complaint was that the test asked a lot of unrelated questions and was nonsense.

That's the story of my life. My mind takes quantum leaps and I make instant connections that would take years to explain to the typical NT. All I'm doing is calculating the available data, but the NT sees it as voodo.
My first impulse is that it's so obvious, I don't understand why it needs any explanation at all. To me, it's like 2 + 2 = 4. Which part don't you get?

Like I said, the person who created this test is hopelessly confused doesn't understand his own question. Garbage in -- garbage out.

I think the whole idea of "rigid thinking" is pure crap.
My mother always said that I was "stubborn." I didn't even understand the accusation until I was an adult. For one thing, it takes two to create a power struggle. And it's usually about a bully who can't figure out how to mind his own business.

I am not "rigid" at all, but the extreme opposite. It's really about being so far out of the box that rigid people don't understand it, are frightened and threatened by it and feel a need to control it. When they can't control it, they make the only assumption their tiny minds can grasp.

The author of this test needs to get a grip on his own unresolved issues before he can open his eyes and take a look at me.
Add to that a communication BARRIOR (not "disorder") that this genius can't see and makes no effort to cross.
It's an inkblot test, and the author is judging us by his own twisted reading of the inkblots.


I didn't think of that, but it explains a lot. He's trying to talk over our heads, when he has no idea where our heads are.
If he could just take his head out of his arse, he might just catch a clue. But probably not.

He is simply deluded.

Bingo. It's just a mass hallucination. Can you say, "Matrix?"

I have a better idea.
Let's make a test of English language fluency and give it to a bunch of native Spanish speakers.
We will ask no questions about age or experience with English.
Then we will conclude that anyone who receives a low score is ret*d.

That makes sense, right? English fluency is normal and instinctive and just "common sense," right? So anyone who doesn't use it must be ret*d, right?

28/80

I might have scored a bit higher, but without feedback from others to confirm that I understand them as well as I think I do I didn't want to make it seem like I'm more empathic than I am.