The Cambridge Autism Research Center Emapthy Test

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65

As someone else said, being an Aspie is so much more than not being able to be sociable. I've got the social thing down, pretty good----I think it's because I was raised by such social people----but, am a total mess, in other ways.

I scored a 36, but that may be an overestimate because the questions don't really get down to enough specifics.

I tend to have more cognitive empathy, than emotional empathy. But I really feel for people who are being mistreated or abused, or who are physically hurt. Just seeing someone get a papercut makes me cringe.

I took the test twice. First time 8. Second time 19.

I find many of these questions difficult to answer:

- Those that include, “People often tell me…”. As what happens if you don’t have a lot of social contact?
- “I can tell if someone is masking their true emotion” – How do you know? By the way, I rarely try to guess someone else's emotion. It seems a bit presumptous.
- “I am good at predicting what someone will do.” – How do you test this? Again, I rarely try to guess what someone else would do.
- “It doesn't bother me too much if I am late meeting a friend.” – I hate being late for anything. Interestingly, I am less bothered about being late for meeting a friend, than almost any other appointment.
- “Seeing people cry doesn't really upset me.” – When I notice people tearing, my first thought is usually confusion (i.e. it’s fake).
- “I can easily work out what another person might want to talk about.” – I don’t understand this. Usually when I am with someone else, the other person dominates the conversation. It’s quite easy to know what they want to talk about. As that is what they are saying.

45

I'm not sure how to explain this, but I think people I've had so many experiences where other people misinterpret me and misinterpret what I'm feeling and what I want, I am less likely to try to empathize with others because I don't want to put anyone else through that same kind of discomfort.

As one example...so many times throughout my life I really just wanted to be left alone because I felt tired or overwhelmed, or was trying to concentrate on something, or just wanted to be quiet and stop talking, or felt a migraine coming on, or just any reason, whatever. It doesn't even matter what the reason is, what matters is that is what I want and need. I would try to disengage the situation politely, and if I was pressured I might have even said directly, PLEASE LEAVE ME ALONE. But some annoying busybody would misinterpret that as me needing company or reassurance or a hug, which would be really invasive.

So because of things like that, I began to infer that other people might say they want to be left alone, or go off by themselves or whatever, when they don't really want to be left alone. How utterly mind boggling is that? How in the world are you supposed to know the difference?! I can't tell, and so I have misinterpreted things that way myself a few times, with absolutely horrifying results. So now I firmly believe that when people say or demonstrate that they want to be left alone, by all means, leave them alone.

And if I am not sure what a person wants, I think it is better to err on the side of caution and just leave them alone anyway, than to risk upsetting them worse.

12

I have very little social interaction these days so the social questions were a bit meaningless for me.

I got 6 on my last go at it. I've not seen a score that low in research about it and must assume that either my self-report is low or something else is wrong with my empathy. The latter is also possible, as it has previously been suggested by psychologists that I have problems with affective empathy.

I do care about whether are hurt and try not to make people sad but it doesn't make me sad that others are sad.

Yes. Many of the questions are hard to answer. thy are rather one-faceted.

6

There must be a mistake somewhere.

Exactly!