Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (Do You Have Asperger's?)

questionwritertracker.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 91 posts

Re: Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (Do You Have Asperger's?)

#61

Post by auxbuss »

jdietrich wrote: post #9

Prediction: The average HNer will score significantly higher than the general average. I hypothesise that the social issues geeks experience are predominantly caused by hypersensitivity to the emotions of others, rather than insensitivity; In keeping with the Dunning-Kruger hypothesis we tend to underestimate our ability to empathise, thereby causing us to overanalyse social situations, leading to anxiety and paralys…

Just adding my score of 32, which was a surprise. And quite a confidence boost. Just hope the test results aren't rigged. They ya go, over-thinking things.

Re: Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (Do You Have Asperger's?)

#63

Post by makmanalp »

m-photonic wrote: post #24
makmanalp wrote: post #19

Is it only me who finds it difficult to label expressions just in eyes, when it feels like an image of the overall face would be much clearer?

I think that's rather the point of the test.

While it's possible that I do have Asperger's (and I'd be interested to know if I did), I'm not sure how this properly tests anything. I know that Asperger's is sometimes characterised by a lack of understanding of social nuances and non-verbal expression, but how often do people have to react to only eyes as opposed to all facial expressions, supported by body language and words?

Re: Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (Do You Have Asperger's?)

#64

Post by jackfoxy »

jdietrich wrote: post #9

Prediction: The average HNer will score significantly higher than the general average. I hypothesise that the social issues geeks experience are predominantly caused by hypersensitivity to the emotions of others, rather than insensitivity; In keeping with the Dunning-Kruger hypothesis we tend to underestimate our ability to empathise, thereby causing us to overanalyse social situations, leading to anxiety and paralys…

32. At least those responding corroborate your prediction. Could be self-selection. Those I got wrong I spent too much time analyzing, might have selected the "correct" answer if I had acted quicker. Does that corroborate Dunning-Kruger a bit?

EDIT: Reading further in the comments quite a few folks revealed a lower score. Actually that should not be too surprising, since some number of high-achieving, socially awkward types find fulfillment in hacking (Bill Gates).

Re: Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (Do You Have Asperger's?)

#65

Post by lwhi »

techiferous wrote: post #49
makmanalp wrote: post #19

Is it only me who finds it difficult to label expressions just in eyes, when it feels like an image of the overall face would be much clearer?

Weird bit of trivia: in photos of faces, the eyes carry most of the emotion, but in cartoon faces, the mouth does.

In cartoons - eyebrows are used to express a great deal of emotion.

Re: Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (Do You Have Asperger's?)

#66

Post by philh »

As someone else points out, without standard deviations it's hard to know how indicative this score is. I got 23, which is consistent with previous tests I've taken (on which I score somewhere between "autistic" and "not autistic").

For some of them I felt like I was doing it "in software", using rules that I know consciously instead of intuitively recognising the emotion. But I don't know to what extent that's actually true (or if it's even a particularly meaningful distinction).

I definitely felt like I had an easier time with some emotions than others. That's not surprising, but it would be interesting to see statistics for each individual face.

Re: Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (Do You Have Asperger's?)

#67

Post by csbutler »

makmanalp wrote: post #63
m-photonic wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's rather the point of the test.

While it's possible that I do have Asperger's (and I'd be interested to know if I did), I'm not sure how this properly tests anything. I know that Asperger's is sometimes characterised by a lack of understanding of social nuances and non-verbal expression, but how often do people have to react to only eyes as opposed to all facial expressions, supported by body language and words?

I'd like to know that too. I got 28. The ones I got wrong I'm sure I got wrong because I started to think about it. I'd wonder if the person was smiling for example.

When I didn't think about it, And trusted my instincts and feelings instead. I always got it right. And figured it out almost instantly. But logically I can't explain that. It was like magic.

Re: Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (Do You Have Asperger's?)

#68

Post by lotharbot »

JoshCole wrote: post #48

I've been diagnosed with apsergers and got a 32, nice!

Also a 32 here, and (at least when it comes to reading social cues) I've got all of the classic Aspergers symptoms. For example, my wife had to train me to make eye contact during conversation.

I think that training boosted my score a lot. You might say I've studied for this test...

Re: Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (Do You Have Asperger's?)

#70

Post by m-photonic »

makmanalp wrote: post #63
m-photonic wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's rather the point of the test.

While it's possible that I do have Asperger's (and I'd be interested to know if I did), I'm not sure how this properly tests anything. I know that Asperger's is sometimes characterised by a lack of understanding of social nuances and non-verbal expression, but how often do people have to react to only eyes as opposed to all facial expressions, supported by body language and words?

>how often do people have to react to only eyes as opposed to all facial expressions, supported by body language and words?

Not often, but supplying only the eyes is a good way to bring the scores down into a more useful range for the test. Assuming that eye-specific recognition ability is a close enough proxy for overall ability, of course.

Personally I don't think this test has anything to do with Asperger's. My feeling is that facial recognition is to some extent an acquired skill like anything else, and that the lowest scores are largely going to go to the people with the least experience in attending to the emotions of others.

Post reply on HN