i'm quizzical

I'm still haunted by the BBC-sponsored quiz I took over a month ago. The questions asked how well I sensed others' emotions and I tried to answer truthfully: I can't ever, definitively, say I know what others' emotions are, though I'm constantly assuming them. My quiz results: based on my inability to know others' emotions, I have autism. I don't. I retook the quiz, de-intellectualized my idea of "knowing," and became a healthy, social person.

This morning, I'm thinking about that quiz again because another quiz, an excerpted version of the Myers-Briggs test I loved as a kid, recently became an internet hit. But almost every question assumes something incorrect. Question no.1: Do you like writers who (a) say what they mean (b) use metaphors and symbolism?

I think authors use metaphors and symbolism to say what they mean. I think every author "says what he means," despite his style. So, to answer the question, I have to break the question down to a simpler question -- question no. 1 becomes, Is your thinking style (a) straightforward and analytical or (b) circumvent and imaginative? The process of interpreting what question is really being asked, and answering it, is the process of self-identification. Skip the quiz then, and go straight to the results you best identify with.

(Despite all that, I took the quiz. I used to be an INTJ, and now score as an INTP. "Precise about their descriptions, INTPs will often correct others (or be sorely tempted to) if the shade of meaning is a bit off." My exact results: E:1, I: 9, S: 2, N: 8, T: 6, F: 5, J: 5, P: 6.)

Posted by nchicha at June 29, 2003 08:20 AM