Less systemizing than your average female

Or so the Systemizing Quotient test would have me believe I am. I scored a 23, which apparently scales toward the low end of average. The average male scores a 30, and the average female a 24.

I don't know if it's really accurate in my case. I'm pretty embarrassingly systemizing when it comes to things like etymology, baseball statistics, film genres, musical influences, the history of comic books, comparative religion, contract theory, or any number of other pointless obsessions. I just happen not to give a shit about cars, trains, trees, highway systems, or botany. Ask a different set of questions, you'll see a totally different kind of geek emerge.

I did get a kick out of this one, though:

"When I lend someone money, I expect them to pay me back exactly what they owe me."

It dawned on me after completing the test that the point of the question is to see whether you'd make a big fuss if they were a few bucks short. But, being the evil capitalist I am, my initial reaction was "of course not...they should also pay interest!"

My Empathy Quotient, meanwhile, is 33, which just barely makes the cutoff between Asperger freak and passing as a human being. Here, the average male scores 42 and the average female 47.

Thankfully, it was an Empathy Quotient and not a Sympathy Quotient, so those of us who are fairly adept at reading what other people are thinking and feeling -- but not especially inclined to let it trouble us in any way -- are free to split hairs in all our question-answering (Q: I can easily tell when someone wants to enter the conversation...my preferred answer: Yes, and I make sure not to give them that opportunity.)

Sadly, I have a sense if the test were measuring one's Sociopathy Quotient, I'd end up placing just outside the Dahmer range.

Oh, yeah, and h/t to Matt Yglesias.

Comments

[shonk]

Ha! My Empathy Quotient of 30 kicks yours' ass.

[comrade_chimp]

rather frighteningly I got 37 and 21. Why don't I have any Rain Man like powers then?

[R.J. Lehmann]

Because 37 and 21 is not autistic at all. The rainmen would have a very low EQ (0-32) and a very high SQ (51-80). You're just kinda normal.