Sense: Empathy

Empathy: "The ability to understand other people, forge relationships and care for others."
I thought it would be interesting to test my empathy because I wasn't really sure how I would score. Sometimes my heart really goes out to people, but other times (I'll just be honest) I can get annoyed with people a little too easily. I'm working on it. But anyway, I thought the results of my test could go either way. Turns out, I'm pretty much average; I scored a 45, with 47 being the most common score for women.

I had to hesitate and really think about a few of the questions. When asked if I prefer animals to humans, my first thought was actually yes. My puppies are my babies, and I would rather be with them than a lot of people.. but that doesn't mean that I don't need intelligent conversation and interaction with other humans. I ended up with "slightly agree" but I really needed a "sometimes" button there. And then the question of if I live for today rather than the future. I know the old cliches..live for today, because tomorrow never comes! It's true, but let's get real. We are constantly planning for the future. You kind of have to, right? For example, we take the ACT because we don't want to be left out in the cold when it's time to send in our college applications. Thinking about the future is the smart thing to do, even though they say we're not really supposed to. So it probably hurt my score, but I put "slightly disagree."

Then there were the questions that seemed a little irrelevant. For example, did I cut up worms as a kid? EW. What? Who even..who even did that? The most extreme it got for the kids at my school was the whole ants/magnifying glass thing, but come on..that's just fascinating. So yeah, I disagree. Then there was the question of whether or not I like roller coasters. I love them, but what does that have to do with me "[understanding] other people and [forging] relationships?" I'm guessing it has something to do with the way that brain works, but I don't quite understand it.

Basically, I wasn't surprised by my average result. I'm no Ghandi, but I do have a heart.
(:

The quiz:
http://glennrowe.net/BaronCohen/EmpathyQuotient/EmpathyQuotient.aspx

A picture of it:

I let my sister read some of the questions to me..she loves to read everything.