NT's special interest = other people?

Post Reply New Topic

I'm just sitting here wondering how one would test this. It seems extrovert NT's (which seems like most of them compared to me, anyway) all have a special interest, together; being social, bonding, doing that whole groups mind thing. It is possible that we auties are different by not having that single, hardwired special interest and instead focusing on other things, with some variation over time?

I'm extroverted. I never thought of it that way. People are an interest, though there's more to it than that. It feels good to be cared about, understood, and accepted, especially because I often feel misunderstood. Also, self-expression and understanding others are at the top of my values, so much more than an interest. How does that work for introverts? I know that some share this perspective and some don't, so I'm interested in the variations.

Actually, most especially for introverts (I'm an in-betweener), it may have more to do with a sensory and perceptive style that's not very conducive to Aspie-level special interests. We pay attention differently from Aspies, and literally have trouble seeing things outside the Matrix produced by our socially-influenced neurological sculpting. We're wired - perhaps soft-wired initially, but it hardens over time, like one's ability to speak and hear the sounds of one's native language far more easily than any other - not to see detail as easily as many autistics do. So we probably just don't have special interests at the same level out of mere boredom with the subject material when we get beyond the stuff we can easily see and get grabbed by. Different NTs will hit that wall at different points in exploring an interest.

And also note that people-oriented, extroverted hobbies tend to be very dynamic and breadth-over-depth: television, movies, sports, gossip. They're about a variety of people doing different things at different times. There's rarely an exclusive focus of the people involved in bonding activities on one another, dating and catching-up after long absences aside.

Only extroverts.

In another thread we are discussing fiction and our relationship to it. Reading this thread it occurred to me that my extensive reading of novels which focus centrally on the themes of human interaction, its multiplicity of variety and myriad meanings and subtexts possibly represents a special interest in other people to a very extreme degree (I read about 100 'serious type' novels a year) - writers who combine style, literary competency, observation and profound insight and who capture in their writing the undercurrent meanings in human interaction and its various and profound effects on external lives. To live in a world without those novels would for me be like living in a world without sunlight.

I am definitely not NT and definitely not an extrovert.. I'm introverted to quite a profound extent.

Could be.
So we overcompensate for the singular interest most people have by intensive interests in something else?
At an autism therapies group I'm attending, the task was to deliberately speak to someone and take an active interest in something that interests them, and does not interest me. I found this very difficult, to bother speaking to someone about something I had no interest in, but the NT facilitator obviously thought it was interesting because it didn't matter about the subject matter - it was interesting to him because he was finding out about that other person, their past, their likes and dislikes, what they were like and how their mind worked, what their life was like. That was what interested him, the socialization, not the subject.
I just completely missed the point because I found the subject of discussion boring.

Maybe for some, like the ones who are really nosy. I've known some who could remember a staggering amount of information about other people and acted like it was their mission in life to know everything about everyone. To me that seems kind of like a special interest because they can go into a lot of depth and detail about it.

But I think most extroverted NTs have a more casual interest in people, like they can ask all about you but it seems like they're not half listening then they don't remember any of it the next time you talk to them. It seems as if they just like the feeling of interacting with people. Kind of like the difference between enjoying riding in a convertible vs. being a real car enthusiast who knows all about a certain type of car.

I can get really fascinated with human behavior, and the way people's minds work, but I don't so much enjoy interacting with people.

No, "neurotypical" people's "special interests" are not socializing, bonding, etc. Even the extroverted ones.

The reason why extroverted non autistics LIKE socializing is because they feel re-energized and refreshed after socializing. Being around other people makes them feel accepted, safe, and it brings them a lot of enjoyment. This is due to dopamine and oxytocin.

Introverted non autistics feel as if socializing is nice but not necessary, they do receive the same safe feeling and really enjoy being around others however it doesn't refresh them, introverts feel more refreshed being alone.

Socializing isn't a topic of interest, it's a deep intuitive hard-wired feeling that many animals have. It's a drive.

I don't think you know what makes a special interest a special interest.

A special interest is characterized by a intense and narrow interest in a single or few topics and categorizing and organizing said interest. If a person is researching intently on the science of social psychology and talks about it to no end and basically becoming borderline obsessive.