Take the UK Guardian Empathy Test! (I think repukes would fail it!)

[displacedtexan]

I decided long ago that repukes lack empathy, which defines the BIG difference between us and them. I believe that they only understand that which affects them personally.

I worked for a repuke HS principal, who complained when I had to take 2 personal days twice in 30 days (both of my in-laws had parsed away, and my husband was devastated). And I had already accumulated 20 personal days, which meant that my absence only cost the district the price of a sub.

The principal (a proud repuke) asked me, "Didn't you just take time off for a funeral recently? Isn't there some way you could put this off until the weekend?"

Later, when his own father-in-law died, this repuke took 2 weeks off and wept and wailed to everyone about how hard it is to deal with death.

Anyway, the UK Guardian has an online test (about 5 minutes of questions). I scored 73 out of 80.

My theory: repukes probably score less than 20 (unless they answer the way they think the test author wants them to).

Try it:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/flash/page/0,13249,937836,00.html

[Paradise]

1. 62 n/t

[Ladybast]

2. 64

64

[GinaMaria]

23. Me too.

[rndmprsn]

3. 42

[TahitiNut]

11. Yup. 42 = 'most men'

:shrug:

[Rainbowreflect]

4. I'm a 70, not surprised.

[formernaderite]

5. Well it appears I'm autistic....

according to this...but definitely a male brain. Okay, that was fun....I'm also an atheist which could also explain this anomaly.

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. Same here

Or maybe we don't hold our own abilities in such high esteem as other people? (Is that an autistic remark to make?)

[UdoKier]

6. 40 - a typical male, it seems

Not that these tests actually mean anything.

[meow2u3]

8. 55 nt

[patcox2]

9. It seems they failed to exclude alternate causes

For some answers desighned to detect your degree of empathy. I found myself giving an answer but thinking "I have to say yes to that, but its not because I am not empathetic. Christ, I feel all the pain of the world in week moments (or are they strong moments). There is a Dinosaur jr. song, "I feel the pain of everyone, then I feel nothing." Thats me. i got a 36.

[Willy Lee]

10. 65 n/t

[semillama]

12. 38

n/t

[dr.strangelove]

13. 54- not bad for a "man"

But I thought it woul dbe higher. I think it was the animal questions that pulled me down. I'm not an animal person.

[robcon]

14. The test was stupid

Anyone can see the "right" answer to almost every question. There are some who would answer the "right" way to maximize their score.

This test measures nothing.

[undergroundpanther]

16. I got a 66

hmm one 6 away from THE BEAST!...*giggle.

[lastliberalintexas]

19. I agree

It also fails to account for alternate explanations, as another poster mentioned. For example, the test doesn't take into account that the reason for me answering that I don't really care if I offend others is because I live in Nazi Land and I truly *don't* care if I offend them anymore...

It seemed that people with strongly held beliefs might tend to be punished for them.

[NoPasaran]

15. 22

Uh oh.

[hunter]

17. Can't find suitable plugin to show this content.

I guess that means I get a "zero."

I win!

[progressivebydesign]

18. 64. That seems right. I'm very intuitive about people's feelings. n/t

[It was not a pretzel]

20. 47, "typical woman"

'cept I'm a man

[hunter]

21. You are wrong, displacedtexan!

Okay,

I installed flash so I could see this test. My first thought was like robcon's post above (#14) -- that I could score anything I wanted to.

Then I thought I'd try to take the test honestly, and I scored, um, less than twenty.

I'm certainly not a "repuke!"

I'd like to think one of the reasons I find Bush so distasteful is that the false social cues he uses to bamboozle people go right over my head.

Reagan was almost as bad for me. People would describe him as friendly or grandfatherly, or whatever, and to me he always looked "lost."

Probably people who have a lot of empathy recognize Bush's social cues as false, and the people with very little empathy recognize Bush's behavior as false, and the people who vote for Bush are somewhere in the middle of that "empathy" scale, and are being fooled by him.

[More Than A Feeling]

22. Well, now I feel better about my 31!

<eom>

[LSdemocrat]

24. I got a 24, mainly I think because I'm pretty socially awkward

[Zero Division]

25. 60: I can be socially awkward due to shyness, but am greatly affected by

other people's emotions, thus I scored around 60. For one thing, no matter how I feel about a person in general, if I see he/she crying I will immediately feel a desire to comfort them or a great deal of either pity. I cannot feel any degree of malice toward any person or creature that I can plainly see is sad (which may not be a good thing sometimes: it leaves me open to being manipulated).

It certainly does seem like those who have difficulty feeling empathy tend toward right wing politics. This does not mean all right wingers are unempathetic or that there are no unempathetic liberals, but my experience also leads me to agree that a lack of empathy strongly correlates with right wing politics.