Mind in the eyes test

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When my 21 year old went through the assessment process just recently, one of the tests he had to do was the "mind in the eyes test". I just googled this test and you can do it on line with instant scores.

Was curious to see how other aspies scored.

Well, I got 28 on the first one that came up on a google search, which according to that is on the high end of average.

I received the same score from that test.
It was multiple choice.
I looked at the eyes/eyebrows before any of the answers, and very often I did not know what emotion to assign to it, until I looked at the list of possible choices. From there, I was able to narrow it down more easily than having to guess just from the expression.

That was my process. I got a 27.

First time I got 19, second time I got 17. I can read basic facial expressions, but that test was insanely hard for me. I guessed on all of them.

First google hit led to a test on glenrowe.net... 31 for me.

OTOH, in real life I don't get 30 seconds to evaluate each and every pair of eyes I spot. I suspect I would do significantly worse if I were forced to watch each pair of eyes for just a second or so and then answer.

I took it twice (once awhile ago) Got a much better, and out of Aspie range score on second time. Can't recall first but it was not too low. But I also found that I looked at the words and there would only be one negative emotion and three positive and the eyes did not look happy (for example), so it was an easy guess. Not in my mind very related to "on the job" interperatation of a real person. I read that the test was validated with known aspies, but I really wonder if there are a lot of us older folk out here who have decades of "on the job" learning how to cope who will not be identified by tests like this. Nobody seems very interested in older people who identify as being on the spectrum and I think that is a rotten shame because we have a lot of knowledge about how the hell to get by since we did it (sort of) on our own.

I think the scores are irrelevant.

What fascinates me is the process by which people read the eyes. I analyze the picture and then compare to the available choices to make a decision, and others have said similar in this thread.

Another poster here described how her sister would generate these social stories to explain what's going on, like create a personality and a context for the eyes' owners to exist in and explain/read their moods. This is something I simply don't do, and I don't know that I really can.

Anyway, this thing that NTs can look at a picture or a video or some such thing and create a story from it when no story is provided is immensely fascinating to me. I mean, I don't mind that I do not do it. I don't even know what doing it would be like, but this in some ways exemplifies a difference in perception that I did not know existed until now.

For the record, my scores have been respectively: 19, 22, 25, 25, 30.

On the 30, I cheated by picking every sexy/seductive choice for women's eyes, even though I disagreed with that interpretation. This actually, on some level, taints the actual test for me.

I actually cheated similarly on the second 25, but not with every woman pictured.

Well this is rather strange, I got 34, which according to the test page means that I am unusually good at reading facial expressions.
Where did that come from though? I rarely look at people's eyes and I while I was doing the test I was thinking about one thing only - that these pictures of eyes looked weirdly truncated without their mouths and that I'd rather look at people's mouths.

But then my specific brand of ASD lets me see what people mean by their body language and by speaking in metaphors but I can't project anything like it or figure out what to do about it.

Same with me, I know that I am uncapable of making up a story if I don't have very detailed instructions about the content and the plot. That's probably why I am a the go-to person at my job when someone needs a scientific paper or a report written but I could never write fiction.
When I was attending French courses there were a lot of exercises about creating a story and I did hate them. Not that I couldn't come up with anything, but it required truly enormous effort.

I got 21. I'm pretty much face blind.

This caught me too. I don't see how the test can be anywhere near accurate when it adds in a whole lot of gender stereotypes.

I got 26, not bad for someone who doesn't make eye contact.

It's actually a very easy test. If the facial muscles look tense, it's likely to be some sort of negative stress-related emotion. If the eyes are to the side, that's usually some sort of insecurity. If the eyes are head on, that implies confrontation. If the face is relaxed and the eyes are small, that implies some sort of positive soothing emotion like playfulness or encouragement. If you follow those rules, you can score at least in the normal range.

I got a 10. I think I probably would have done better if they showed the whole face, not just the eyes.

What I find interesting in this context is that I can write fiction - although I primarily do it by imitating other authors writing styles (not their content, just the way they write). But fiction is unlike this other thing. I'm not looking at a situation and trying to interpret it on the fly, but putting all the players where I want them, giving them the motivations I want them to have, the personalities I want them to have, and the actions I want them to commit.

What I can't do is write fiction from nothing, so I do a lot of worldbuilding just to get to where I can write stories - and I do about 100x more worldbuilding than fiction writing, unfortunately.

When I posted that video, I had no idea so many people would be referring to it. Here's the link for that thread: Social Attribution Task Even some aspies were able to come up with elaborate social scenarios, which I didn't expect. Though my NT friend still beat every one of us.

26 on that test...I've taken it so many times though so that may or may not have affected my results...