What are the ways NT think?

Post Reply New Topic

I agree with what you say here, but I do not understand what it has to do with my comment.

I think what was meant here was this:
"Seen/met one (whoever), you've seen/met them all!" = the philosophy, that CyclopsSummers mentioned, which doesn't refer to just NTs, as he has made experiences with autistics (both online and offline), that were what he mentioned above, so he could also "group them" based on that statement.

Yeah, that's partly correct. But it's not so much about 'grouping' those autistics I've met, as much as it is about them 'grouping' other people in a certain category, and attach prejudices to them.

But I realize that I may have misinterpreted the credo that emtyeye mentioned ('Seen one, you've seen them all'), as I assumed it referred to people being short-sighted and/or prejudiced. So sorry if I wasn't clear or misread the point of your post, emtyeye.

^This.

Research has shown that NTs and autistic people do process information about faces differently. Autistic people use the same neural pathways for faces, that they use for objects. NTs use separate neural pathways for faces. It is thought that those different neural pathways may trigger different emotional responses in NTs.

I think that because NTs think in "people" they also think in "emotions." Whatever they think about, they think about in terms of other people, and the information they have coded internally about other people triggers emotions. So they tend to reason things out emotionally. They think with a kind of "emotional reasoning" or "emotional logic." That sounds like a total oxymoron, but the thing is they like to mix emotions with reason because both are less sharp or intense that way. They tend to assign emotional meanings to the things they see, that don't necessarily have any particular emotional meaning. And they also try to rationalize their way through emotions, instead of just experiencing them as pure emotion. Emotional reasoning is how they buffer themselves against the world and figure out their place in society.

Thinking "In Black and White" basically Refers to thinking in "Things/objects/territory".

Thinking in "Shades of gray" basically Refers to thinking in "people".


So another way to say it is that NTs tend to view the World more in Shades of gray compared to AS people, who tend to view the world in polar opposites, Black and White.


It all goes back to predatory style,

NT people are group hunters, therefore they desperately need a group to feel good. Without a group, they will eventually get severely depressed (corresponds to social isolation). That is why their Whole life evolves around Group acceptance. Everything ("sensible") NTs do can be traced back to that.

AS people are solo hunters, therefore they desperately need to not have leaders to feel good. Having leaders, they will eventually get severely depressed (corresponds to bullying from "higher-ranking" group members). That is why their whole life evolves around not having leaders, i.e. obtaining independence. Everything ("sensible") AS people do can be traced back to that.

I agree. Although it is impossible to know how someone else thinks, observing NT behaviour and conversation points to the big role of cultural norms that seem to be learned intuitively by so-called social learning. It took me a long time (decades) to realise the importance of hierarchies in the context of social behaviour. NT behaviour is driven significantly by the desire to rise in the social hierarchy.

NTs use verbal and non-verbal communication to convey social status, and it seems like climbing the social status ladder is the main purpose of NT life. For NTs the focus of learning is on memorising and intuitively understanding the terrain in the social status landscape, and navigating that terrain. The logic of social learning seems to be that whatever the majority of people in the surrounding community say or do is taken on board as "truth" or as the "correct" way to behave, without generating any "why?" questions or without requesting any evidence.

In contrast, people with ASD use communication to exchange information on how the rest of the [non-social] world works, often with a focus on specific aspects, the so called "special interests". In the ASD context the "why?" question and concrete evidence are the most important tools, and social hierarchies are non-existent. Add to this the difficulty in processing and reading non-verbal communication, and a dose of sensory overload, and you end up on a different planet.

Due to the difference in the purpose of communication, literal interpretation of NT communication simply does not make much or any sense, and for someone with ASD it is impossible to predict how an NT will react to a matter-of-fact observation.

From the NT perspective strong special interests and associated communication are perceived as untypical obsessions. From the ASD perspective the same could be said about social status hierarchies and associated verbal and non-verbal communication.

From an NT perspective, not taking into account social hierarchies in communication and interaction is seen as a form of black-and-white thinking. From an ASD perspective the same could be said about NTs in terms of not noticing or subconsciously filtering (and ignoring) all the intricate details and phenomena in the non-social world.

I get really frusterated with them sometimes because they tend to not see details about things that are quite obvious to me. They also tend to overuse cleshes and consider popular opinions as facts. In short, most of them are morons. That alone wouldn't bother me too much if so many of them weren't such condemming, prejudiced jerks.

Sarcasm and everything is awesome nuff said thats NTs in a nutshell!

Are you sure that is NTs and not just people in general?

I'm almost certain that the things you listed are all learned/formed rather than inborn, including prejudice. I've seen all those things from both 'sides' anyway.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StTqXEQ2l-Y[/youtube] An NTS mind in a nutshell!

So do you possibly thing that I'm being prejudiced by saying those negative things? That may be true,but I try not to judge people until I've heard them talk a bit. The problem arises when they asert some popular opinion and consider it a fact and when that popular opinion depicts another type of person negatively. I geuss I feel that a least my negative opinions of other people are created by me. They are not just based on things I've heard or read without doing any significant research. My problem is that NTs seem to prefer to have all their opinions and ideas spoonfed to them and they really don't bother to examine these ideas in depth.
My parents and my sister are NTs with high IQs but their tendency to overlook details makes them often look like idiots in my eyes. My sister for example has got mad at me often because when ever she says something that I don't agree with I always prove her wrong. But that's the price she pays for talking out her rear end which tends to be pretty typical of NTs.