Well, this never looks good

[elfs]

Empathy:
13.

Scoring:
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

Autism: 38

Scoring:
0 - 10 = low
11 - 22 = average (most women score about 15 and most men score about 17)
23 - 31 = above average
32 - 50 is very high (most people with Asperger Syndrome or high-functioning autism score about 35)
50 is maximum

Comments

Re: Does Not Compute

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Sure it does. In fact, it makes more sense. Normal human beings don't spend a lot of time processing their social feelings; they just work. Aspy's and ADD's (I've long known I have the latter; I've never been diagnosed with the former and I don't think at this point that it would serve any purpose if I were) are probably better at writing about these things precisely because they think about what those relationships are.

I mean, read any book where characters are thinking "deeply" about their relationships. Do real people think like that, or do they only wish that they did?

Re: Does Not Compute

[elfric.livejournal.com]

As an INTP who is also ADD, I totally agree with your assessment. I have actually spent time thinking about how people interact, why they do what they do, why they think what they do, etc. From what I can tell, that sort of thing is intuitively obvious to most people.

Re: Does Not Compute

[dougs.livejournal.com]

I score low for Empathy and high for Autism, and yet people seem to think that I can write about the state of a protagonist's mind and emotions. I hadn't seen a theory to account for this until now.

That's a very helpful analysis, thank you.

(I'm INTP, occasionally INTJ)

Typo!

[dougs.livejournal.com]

I'm ISTP, occasionally ISTJ. Oops.

Re: Does Not Compute

[elfs.livejournal.com]

I'm an INTJ (I saw your later post, so I know it's an S), but only weakly J, ocassionally sliding in P depending on the day I take the test. As a writer, I sometimes have characters who don't introspect and I have problems writing them. I know there are people like that, but how do you deal with someone who seems to have little or no inner life? I have a serious problem empathising with and making seem human those kinds of people.

Re: Does Not Compute

[dougs.livejournal.com]

Ah, it looks like I don't write characters who don't introspect. I don't write them in detail anyway -- bit players who aren't core to the piece don't count.
Because I'm a slash writer and very rarely produce original characters, as a result I very rarely have to build a character from scratch. Even so, if I place a canonically non-introspective character at the centre of one of my pieces, you can bet I'll have plenty of introspection going on.

Sometime I might raise this question in my own journal. (Not now -- bedtime UK time).