The Cambridge Autism Research Center Emapthy Test

Post Reply New Topic

NOTE: You do NOT have to sign up on the site to take this test. You only have to answer your age group, your sex and whether or not you have or are suspected of having an Autism Spectrum Disorder. After answering those questions you can skip the rest and go straight to the test.[/blockquote][/div]

http://aspietests.org/eq/index.ph

Usage - From the Oxford Dictionary

People often confuse the words empathy and sympathy. Empathy means ‘the ability to understand and share the feelings of another’ (as in ‘both authors have the skill to make you feel empathy with their heroines’), whereas sympathy means ‘feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else’s misfortune’ (as in ‘they had great sympathy for the flood victims’).

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/defin ... sh/empathy



It should be noted that a person can be compassionate, sympathetic and quite willing to help others - but not necessarily very empathetic which requires an ability to spontaneously and intuitively understand what and how someone else is thinking and feeling.

Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen one of the designers of this self-test has made it clear that the empathy deficit experienced by most people with an ASD is not a lack of caring or heartlessness - It is simply a lack of ability to naturally and spontaneously clue in to how others are thinking and feeling. Dr. Baron-Cohen differentiates between Cognitive empathy which he feel most people with autism lack versus affective empathy which people with autism have just as much as anyone else.

Anyway it is an interesting self-reporting test - being as honest as possible - these were my scores - And I so sincerely think a nice guy and I think most people who know me well would say the same:




Score

Test taken by you on 6 February 2015 16.0

The average score for males with ASD (199 people took this test) 22.5
The average score for females with ASD (204 people took this test) 22.7
The average score for males with suspected ASD (1328 people took this test) 20.2
The average score for females with suspected ASD (2158 people took this test) 23.4
The average score for male neurotypicals (591 people took this test) 36.0
The average score for female neurotypicals (987 people took this test) 41.2


http://aspietests.org/eq/index.php

I scored an eight, but I tend to not self-report accurately (unintentionally, obviously).

This empathy thing always gets to me. So many people with ASDs (and other disorders, physical or mental) get bullied at some point in their life by usually NT people, because a lot of NTs don't understand us. But it's still always Autistics that are supposed to lack empathy and NTs are supposed to be the empathetic experts. Not saying all NTs are likely to bully, because there are lots of nice NT people out there are do understand how it feels to be disabled or have some other disorder. It always gets me mad when these empathy discussions get brought up.

I don't intuitively know what people are thinking or feeling, and usually I don't feel anything even if I know in theory or they directly tell me. I often don't care about people's feelings. I don't make empathic statements much, as I don't feel the feelings that would cause me to make these statements and convey my empathy or sympathy to others. I often don't have concern for physical pain of others, if it is obvious that there is only minor injury or physical symptom. I sometimes think that people are wussies and whiners for complaining about some minor physical or mental issues. These are my empathy deficits.

However, I am verry merry berry helpful person, as in I will help others do things at cost of my own time, money, or energy/effort. I do it automatically, and if someone asks me for help, I will almost always say yes, even if I have to rearrange my own schedule or inconvenience myself. These are my prosocial tendencies.

I scored a 16. I've always been rubbish at identifying others' feelings.

I think autistics are far more empathic than people give them credit.

I think they just either choose not to show the empathy, don't feel comfortable showing it, or can't identify when to show it.

But lacking, no.

My interactions, regarding empathy and NTs, often leave me feeling like Spock in this little quote from TOS:

Crewman: "I happen to have a Human thing called an adrenaline gland."
Spock: "That does sound most inconvenient, however. Have you considered having it removed?"

I got "50". Yes my empathy levels are normal but I'm still confirmed to be on the spectrum officially. Asperger's is WAY more than just not being able to pick up social cues. There are still a few of us (10-15%) who have totally normal empathy processing but still have Asperger's.

I tried it... got 20.

My EQ-60 score was 11.

17

11

18

I scored 25.

15