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

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

#81

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…

Wow, that sounds like me. 32.

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

#82

As always, it should be noted that it seems likely that people who got high scores would be more likely to post theirs (few people like to show off as below-average!), which is one reason taking an average of the scores posted on this page isn't indicative of an HN average score. (Me, I got 26. They don't call me Mr. Average for nothin'.) EDIT: If I'd gotten 25, do you think I'd have included that last line?

26 here too. I felt like on some of them I would project a choice onto the eyes. Some where easy (only one choice made sense), and some seemed completely arbitrary.

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

#83

As always, it should be noted that it seems likely that people who got high scores would be more likely to post theirs (few people like to show off as below-average!), which is one reason taking an average of the scores posted on this page isn't indicative of an HN average score. (Me, I got 26. They don't call me Mr. Average for nothin'.) EDIT: If I'd gotten 25, do you think I'd have included that last line?

26 here too. I felt like on some of them I would project a choice onto the eyes. Some where easy (only one choice made sense), and some seemed completely arbitrary.

27 here. I thought I would do better to be honest. I make a pretty decent amount of pocket money playing poker and I consider my biggest strength to be my ability to read people in an incredibly short period of time. Then again, I am a bit of an arrogant git.

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

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I got 30 right, but with the exact opposite experience. The 6 I got wrong were the ones I did immediately, and the 30 I got right were the ones I thought about.

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

#85

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.

Western-style emoticon, happy mouth :-D

Japanese-style emoticon, happy eyes ^_^

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

#86
I have aspergers, but I got 30. Strange. The ones I had difficultly with were the "flirty" female ones.

But then again, I've been working on "hacking" by aspergers for past few years, working from the ground up to figure out wtf facial expressions mean among other things.

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

#87

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…

33 here. The only anxiety or frustration I got was getting one wrong because I didn't read all the choices. Other than that it was kind of fun.

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

#88
I got a 24. As someone diagnosed with Asperger's Spectrum Disorder (Nonverbal Learning Disorder to be exact), this surprised me. I expected it to be lower. Granted, I've done some reading up on facial expressions so that might have helped.

@makmanalp asked a very good question about why they tested only looking at the eyes and not the res of the face, or the rest of the body. While looking at the rest of the face would have been helpful, much of the way we express ourselves is done just in our eyes.

Psychologist Daniel Goleman in his book "Social Intelligence" says that the eyes are, "...something akin to the poetic idea that the eyes are windows on the soul: the eyes offer glimpses into a person’s most private feelings. More specifically the eyes contain nerve projections that lead directly… neuron to neuron, [to] three major regions of the brain: the cortex (or “thinking brain”), the amygdala (the trigger point for many emotional reactions), and the brain stem (the “reptilian” zones for automatic response) (63-64)."

I highly recommend Paul Ekman's "Emotions Revealed" if you're interested in this sort of thing. It's about reading facial micro-expressions - not about Asperger's. I recomend Goleman's books as well, but you'll probably find Ekman's more interesting.

I've done quite a bit of personal research on this stuff, and while I'm no expert I'd be happy to try and answer any questions that people have.

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

#89
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>how often do people have to react to only eyes as opposed to all facial expressions, supported by body language and words? When they are being lied to. That is, every day.

What makes you think that people can control their body language, but not their eyes?

>What makes you think that people can control their body language, but not their eyes?

I think it's harder to control both, a disparity between the two suggests something is amiss. Also, "the eyes are the windows of the soul" has some basis in human behaviour IMO.

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

#90
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

26 here too. I felt like on some of them I would project a choice onto the eyes. Some where easy (only one choice made sense), and some seemed completely arbitrary.

27 here. I thought I would do better to be honest. I make a pretty decent amount of pocket money playing poker and I consider my biggest strength to be my ability to read people in an incredibly short period of time. Then again, I am a bit of an arrogant git.

26 for me
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