Falo wrote:
I am wondering if the so-called autistic tests have any kind of reliability. Take the typical question: "I like to do the same thing over and over again". Most people do. Few people change their lifestyle very much. They do the same (or much the same) kind of work for the whole life, eat about the same dishes, watch the same kind of TV broadcasting, buy the same kind of things, etc... A lot of advertisers try to analyze your interests (Google analytics), this is because these interests don't fully change from one day to another.
The real question is "have you this trait more pronounced than other people". But it is very difficult because we have to know exactly how other people behave. Given that a trait of autistic people is a difficulty to interpret other behaviours and/or mind; knowing exactly how you differ from the mean is difficult. It is at least a case for me, I usually don't know how I compare to other people.
Many questions are of the same kind. Like "can you easily make two think at once?". Most people have "difficulties" in the sense that for most (if not all) people, it is more difficult than to make a single thing at once. Again the real question is "is it more difficult for you than for someone else?"
The tests are reliable
screening tools but are not intended for use as
diagnostic tools.
You're approaching the questions the wrong way - they're not asking you "do you do this more than most people?" They're asking "is this consistent with how you view yourself?" And it's not just one question at a time, but 50 questions or so (for the AQ) with an aggregate outcome based on most or all of the answers, that suggest whether not autism is a
possibility.
If you want an actual diagnosis, you'll need an evaluation by a professional. They may use evaluation tools that are different and do not rely upon your subjective responses, at least not in the same manner that the screening tests do.
So, of course these tests are not reliable for diagnosing autism, but that's not why they exist.