Friday, October 04, 2013

Can I read people's emotions?

I can according to this test in the NYTimes - I scored 33/36.

But after I took the test I saw this and become completely skeptical:
 To find out how well you read the emotions of others, take the Well quiz, which is based on an assessment tool developed by University of Cambridge professor Simon Baron-Cohen.
Baron-Cohen (cousin of Ali G) is the jerk who came up with the whole "men are systematizers and women are emotional" bullshit  so beloved of Steven Pinker, which was handily eviscerated by Elizabeth Spelke.

Of course you haven't heard of Spelke, because unlike science celebrities like Baron-Cohen and Pinker, Spelke spends her time doing actual science, instead of pop psychology for idiots.