this post was submitted on 02 May 2026
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Autism

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[–] glimse@lemmy.world 4 points 8 hours ago

I don't have autism but I think this is a bad question. It's not asking about the test taker, it's asking about their social circle.

Like if you mostly talk to other autistic people in your life, you're gonna get called out for it less than if you worked at a corporate office

[–] MaybeNaught@lemmy.world 8 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

OOPs initial instinct was correct. You're supposed to answer truthfully based on your actual observed experiences, not answer questions about others' assessments your behavior with your own internal assessment of that behavior. Overthinking surveys can skew answers inappropriately.

[–] protogen420@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

I think overthinking on surveys might have a correlation with autism

[–] ericatty@infosec.pub 7 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

Maybe there should be another two questions to every question:

A- How much time did you take to think about the answer this question?

B- Which was the other answer you were considering chosing?

[–] oats@piefed.zip 18 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

How likely are you to recommend our product to your friends?

Extremely unlikely, because I just dont talk about random products to my friends...

[–] ptu@sopuli.xyz 6 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

We once had a great argument at work between HR and a senior developer, who didn’t have friends and if he had, prefered them to not work at the same company, hence answering straight 0 to how likely he would recommend the employer to his friends. He absolutely enjoyed working there nevertheless.

[–] oats@piefed.zip 5 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

Haha yeah, I am on the workforce going on three decades, and no way I'd mix work and play.

Few years back my employer tried to start a local tech conference. All of us got invite codes, "50% off for your friends". If you had a certain number of referrals you'd get a cash bonus on top, dont remember how much, couple hundred bucks. I passed that code on exactly zero times, because of course I wouldn't ask my friends to spend money and obvs for me that was a work event. Why would I want my private circle there?

[–] MutilationWave@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 5 hours ago

I've brought on two friends to my current job because they were in desperate situations. One of them has been ok to work with but complains all the time. The other one pissed me off so bad after three weeks that our argument (this was like the third verbal argument) was very nearly a fistfight. I knew it was gonna be like this. Better than having my friends living on the street.

[–] ptu@sopuli.xyz 2 points 9 hours ago

Exactly, that would be a hard pass from me too haha

[–] TerdFerguson@lemmy.world 3 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

No, of course not. They choose less kind words to express that.

🫠

[–] Leviathan@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

But you're adding to the question. It doesn't ask how often people tell you that at all. It literally just asks if people tell you that, which they do.

[–] Jarix@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

It's a statement of a thing that you experience and then asks you specifically to agree or disagree with it. Literally.: people do this thing.

There is nothing, nonspecific word, that make that sentence a question, regardless of intent. It has nothing like a question in the wording.

YOU are adding you the question. OP is literally only reading what is stated without adding anything.

So no it doesn't literally just ask if people tell you that. You are interpreting it differently than it reads verbatim.

I do believe that is the entire point of OP posting this

[–] diabetic_porcupine@lemmy.world 6 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I mean why would they include “people tell me” in the question if it wasn’t important!

[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago

Because it is important.

You think you are being too literal but folks around you might not.

The intent is to catch being so literal it causes friction in social interactions. You fall to recognize the intended meaning behind interactions. People get actively annoyed to the point they let you know.

Self assessment is not going to work too well, you have to provide externally observed phenomenon.

[–] GhostFace@lemmy.today 1 points 11 hours ago

These tests are so bad for this reason.

There's a lot of questions that are like "do you know how to socialize" and I'll sometimes get extrovert because obviously yes. The question should really be "do you want to" or "do you enjoy".

[–] olafurp@lemmy.world 3 points 15 hours ago

I only got "on the spectrum" when I was 17 on one of these tests because of that. Turns out if you answer the question with "what did the NT have in mind / how would they answer in my situations" got me a much higher score.

[–] vithigar@lemmy.ca 47 points 1 day ago (4 children)

This wasn't a test for any kind of neurodivergence, but on a test for a job many years ago I was presented with the question "would you ever think about taking money from the cash register?"

So... Clearly the answer they wanted was "no", right? But the act of reading and understanding the question requires you to think about taking money from the cash register! Even if just to reject the idea.

I answered "yes" thinking I was so clever for spotting their trick question. Turns out that was not their intent and I grossly over thought it.

I did not get the job.

[–] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 6 points 15 hours ago

The answer is obviously yes. You have to give change.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 11 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

Turns out that was not their intent and I grossly over thought it.

Yeah, I fell for this when I was just starting out job hunting. It's basically a "is this your first time taking an employment test?" Test, because it's very clear they just want you to lie to them once you realize what answers are failing.

[–] mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 26 points 1 day ago (1 children)

also, like, how else are you going to give change

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Or do the count at the end of the night?

[–] spicehoarder@lemmy.zip 9 points 22 hours ago

You must only put money into the magic box

[–] absentbird@lemmy.world 3 points 20 hours ago

If you're working a cash register they probably don't want people who think too deeply either. It's sort of like that famous case where the police department refused to hire people with high or low IQs

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 23 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Overthinking multiple choice questions, stressing about all the ways in which the answers could be ambiguous, and considering the intention of each question and how it fails to adequately address the thing that it's attempting to.

Yeah, that tracks...

[–] NikkiDimes@lemmy.world 12 points 23 hours ago (3 children)

Do neurotypicals really not consider such things? I feel like anything I ever say I think through a million different ways it might be taken.

[–] flubba86@lemmy.world 12 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

That comes from a lifetime of being misinterpreted. If everything you say from when you're a teen until your late twenties gets taken in a million different ways other than that you intended, you start to over analyze the response to every question you give, you need to be able to anticipate every way that neurotypicals will misunderstand you and mitigate against it.

And no, neurotypicals do not consider such things, because that experience rarely if ever happens to them.

[–] Viceversa@lemmy.world 2 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

you need to be able to anticipate every way that neurotypicals will misunderstand you and mitigate against it.

How NT manage to understand each other?

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 3 points 9 hours ago

My best guess is that they have a secret code that they all somehow intuitively understand. I must have missed the class where you learn that code...

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[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 3 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Do neurotypicals really not consider such things?

I wouldn't know.

I feel like anything I ever say I think through a million different ways it might be taken.

Same, and often I'm still blindsided by the way it ends up getting taken. What's worse is that my mitigating steps get mistaken even worse!

[–] NikkiDimes@lemmy.world 3 points 16 hours ago

Same, and often I'm still blindsided by the way it ends up getting taken. What's worse is that my mitigating steps get mistaken even worse!

Absolutely way too true haha

[–] Viceversa@lemmy.world 2 points 16 hours ago

We consider it, but briefly, as our brain throwing it out as irrelevant and out of context.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 5 points 21 hours ago

A lot of tests are simply worded poorly.

[–] lifeinlarkhall@lemmy.world 3 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Me raving about why people ask you how are if they don't want an answer 🙃

Also if I have a cake, I'm going to eat it too. If I can't have my cake AND eat it too I don't want a damn cake! 🎂 I always just think of a kid sadly watching their cake knowing they're not allowed to eat it 😭😭😭😅

[–] absentbird@lemmy.world 6 points 20 hours ago

You can't eat your cake and have it too. They just flip the saying because it sound better the other way around. But the core idea is that once you eat the cake it's gone; a cake is both a decoration and a dessert, but the utility of one destroys the other.

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