Friday, June 19, 2009

A Whole New Mind...MInd in the Eyes Test

After reading A Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink I was asked to do one of the tasks he lists in his book. I chose to do one of the suggested tasks stated under the portfolio for Empathy.

Pink states that "Empathy is the ability to imagine yourself in someone else's position and to intuit what that person is feeling. It is the ability to stand in others' shoes, to see with their eyes, and to feel with their hearts." Pink states in his book that research shows women to be better at reading people's facial expressions and detecting when people are lying.

After reading about empathy, I decided to take the Mind in the Eyes Test. The test showed me pictures of eyes and nothing else. I had to decide from the eyes how that person was feeling. I did not do very good;I scored below average.

The test had 36 questions total, and I scored 19 correct. The test said that, on average, people scored between 22 and 30 questions correct. A score above 30 on the test is very good. The test says that the people who score above 30 are very accurate in decoding facial expressions through the eyes. A score below 22 indicates that the person taking the quiz finds reading facial expressions through the eyes very difficult.

I did not do very good on the Mind in the Eyes Test, but that does not mean you would not. I have never really considered myself to be good at deciphering feelings through the eyes anyway. To take the test you can visit http://glennrowe.net/BaronCohen/Faces/EyesTest.aspx.

Below is a picture that I actually got correct. The correct answer is marked.