(no subject)

Oh dear.

My score on the Empathy Quotient test:

30 - You have a lower than average ability for understanding how people feel and reacting appropriately. Most people with Asperger Syndrome or high-functioning autism score about 20. On average, most women score about 47 and most men about 42.

The scary thing is that this score is actually an improvement. The first time I took the test this morning, I scored 23. Of course, it's not a good idea to try and fill out psychological tests with two kids vying for your attention... mind you, the fact that I was ignoring my kids in order to do the test may just be proof of my innate insensitivity. :)

My Systemizing Quotient, on the other hand, was:

27 - You have an average ability for analyzing and exploring a system. Systemizing is the drive to analyze and explore a system, to extract underlying rules that govern the behaviour of a system; and the drive to construct systems. On average women score about 24 and men score about 30.

No big surprise there.

According to the test I have a Type S, or "Male", brain. This, too, comes as no surprise. I generally find men much more easy to understand and communicate with than women.

Not that I take this test that seriously, you understand; but the results are rather interesting, as is the article that accompanies it:

There is also a sex difference in aggression. Males tend to show far more "direct" aggression such as pushing, hitting and punching. Females tend to show more "indirect" (or "relational", covert) aggression. This includes gossip, exclusion, and bitchy remarks. It could be said that to punch someone in the face or to wound them physically requires an even lower level of empathy than a verbal snipe.

Maybe it's just my "male" brain leading me astray, but I've always found verbal nastiness far more hurtful and ultimately destructive than a fist-fight. When I was in high school I often saw boys lose their tempers and pound on each other, but it seemed to relieve the tension between them and more often than not they were good friends again in short order. Whereas when the girls started to snipe at each other, the wounds inflicted festered and spread like gangrene, and soon all hope of restoring the friendship was been lost.

I've said before that I'd rather be punched in the face, than slanderously misrepresented; and though I really am not keen on suffering physical violence, I really do think that I mean it. So in other words, I am not sure I agree with the author of the article that using verbal rather than physical violence indicates a higher degree of empathy. To me it's just as cruel and self-centred to attack with words as with fists, and in a way less honest.

Thanks to Jerie for the link.

Addressing the Muses

Idea poached from lizbee, whose most recent post about the development of her (really excellent) HP fic Girl Most Likely made me giggle like an idiot.

( Letters to my characters, regarding various fics in progress )

That was fun. I'll have to do it again sometime.