I took the quiz and got 60% German. I’m pretty sure I’m autistic and doing post hoc justification as to why my behavior is socially positive, and so I get German. Anyway, I sent this to a friend...
I took the quiz and got 60% German. I’m pretty sure I’m autistic and doing post hoc justification as to why my behavior is socially positive, and so I get German.
Anyway, I sent this to a friend who got neither and it said to him the following.
Someone you follow scored either Both or German. They sent it to you as a question or as a joke. You are their control group.
I got absolutely and unreasonably accurately called out. Unbelievable.
I'm not sure if this was there when you took it, but when my mother took it there was small text that indicated the percentages are independent of each other and thus probably won't add up to...
I'm not sure if this was there when you took it, but when my mother took it there was small text that indicated the percentages are independent of each other and thus probably won't add up to 100%. You can be both German and autistic or neither, after all.
TBH, I'd assumed that and was whining about the math out of sheer peevishness that they'd commit such an irregularity. But I don't know if that irritation is German or autistic.
TBH, I'd assumed that and was whining about the math out of sheer peevishness that they'd commit such an irregularity. But I don't know if that irritation is German or autistic.
I'm 60% German and 56% autistic. Beneath the result it says "Scores are independent — they don't need to add up to 100%" which bothers both the German and autistic sides of me.
I'm 60% German and 56% autistic. Beneath the result it says "Scores are independent — they don't need to add up to 100%" which bothers both the German and autistic sides of me.
It’s interesting that there is no option for “I don’t have an inner monologue”. I have one, a loud one, which is saying the things I’m typing right now, but I know this is not universal and some...
It’s interesting that there is no option for “I don’t have an inner monologue”. I have one, a loud one, which is saying the things I’m typing right now, but I know this is not universal and some people are completely without.
I used to have one, but now I have a soundtrack. Mine's currently playing All I Need by Radiohead as I type this. I'm not sure what happened, or where my internal monologue went. It just......
I used to have one, but now I have a soundtrack. Mine's currently playing All I Need by Radiohead as I type this. I'm not sure what happened, or where my internal monologue went. It just... stopped one day. Not sure why, either, while I'm at it. I don't even remember when it went away.
I've never heard anyone else say they have a soundtrack before! I do too. It's either thinking in full sentences, or constant music playing in my head. There's never a moment of quiet lol. ETA:...
I've never heard anyone else say they have a soundtrack before! I do too. It's either thinking in full sentences, or constant music playing in my head. There's never a moment of quiet lol.
ETA: Todays song has been the intro theme to Frieren!
Yup, soundtrack at all times. Right now my brain is playing parts of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's song "Satan Said Dance" -- Fortunately my brain doesn't tend to get stuck on just one song. People...
Yup, soundtrack at all times. Right now my brain is playing parts of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's song "Satan Said Dance" -- Fortunately my brain doesn't tend to get stuck on just one song. People ask me why I don't listen to music all the time and it's like "but I do? I'm never not hearing a soundtrack."
When "Le Poisson Steve" was trending on tiktok it was in my head for like TWO WEEKS. The longer it was there, the more distorted it got. It was awful lmao.
When "Le Poisson Steve" was trending on tiktok it was in my head for like TWO WEEKS. The longer it was there, the more distorted it got. It was awful lmao.
I do listen to music now and again to restart my brain. For some reason I had Footloose running through my head, but I’ve gotten it to swap to “life’s a beach” by hard life (formerly easy life,...
I do listen to music now and again to restart my brain. For some reason I had Footloose running through my head, but I’ve gotten it to swap to “life’s a beach” by hard life (formerly easy life, before the lawsuit.)
All. The. Time. Music. Except when I type/write someting, my mind tells me what ever I'm writing, but the soundtrack is still there, however if needed it gets quiet not to disturb my mind speaking...
All. The. Time. Music.
Except when I type/write someting, my mind tells me what ever I'm writing, but the soundtrack is still there, however if needed it gets quiet not to disturb my mind speaking to me words I'm typing at the moment.
Once we've been hiking in the winter with friends one of them asked me how many songs do I know, because I've been humming dozens of them, not repeating a single one throughout every hour of our hike. I was surprised by their observation and realized I've been really doing this, not just on the trip, but probably most of my life.
Yes, probably that's connected to me wanting to go to music school as a kid and in the end finishing music degree. However, it is so random, choosing the songs to play by my brain, no constant plan, just like a cat seeing something moving and rushing towards it. Constant radio playing various stuff all the time. I'd love to be able to choose what gets played, though.
[edit]
One more interesting thing I've just recalled - this brain activity probably helped with learning languages, because well, they also are kind of music - all of them have some melody. And repeating phrases constantly (because they resemble a phrase of a song) helps to grasp the accent and memorize the melody of the language.
Hmm. I’m also pretty decent with language, though I for sure don’t have much proficiency in any of the ones that I “know” simply because I slip back into English the moment things get fatiguing in...
Hmm. I’m also pretty decent with language, though I for sure don’t have much proficiency in any of the ones that I “know” simply because I slip back into English the moment things get fatiguing in French or Spanish, German or Swedish, or Japanese. But I’m told that when I do speak them I tend to have a fairly understandable accent. This is especially helpful with Japanese, which has a pitch accent.
I don't know if I have an inner monologue. I don't notice it when I am not thinking about it, and when I am, all I can think about is if I'm currently thinking in words, which of course, is...
I don't know if I have an inner monologue. I don't notice it when I am not thinking about it, and when I am, all I can think about is if I'm currently thinking in words, which of course, is accomplished with words.
My understanding (likely horribly wrong) is if you hear any voice in your head that you can make say any word it counts as an inner monologue. When you read this text, do you hear the words in...
My understanding (likely horribly wrong) is if you hear any voice in your head that you can make say any word it counts as an inner monologue.
When you read this text, do you hear the words in your head? If you try can you make a voice in your head say the words on the screen?
Some people have extreme control over their inner monologue and can get it to have full conversations, imitate all ranges and tones of voice, even sing.
Mine is very grounded in that it's exactly like if I was reading out loud, but in my head. I'm "saying" the words I'm typing in my head as I do it in my own voice. Sometimes I stop and think about the next sentence by talking it through in my head like I would put loud.
But I can't do much fun with it. Sometimes if I watch a lot of TV or something it'll get stuck in the voice of a character or something for a bit which is funny. If I remember it I can try and put it on in my head but I'm not very imaginative lol.
This pretty much exactly mirrors my experience, though I can switch into accents as well - those that I can do speaking out loud. I'm pretty good with certain accents out loud (D&D player who...
This pretty much exactly mirrors my experience, though I can switch into accents as well - those that I can do speaking out loud. I'm pretty good with certain accents out loud (D&D player who likes voiced characters), and those are the ones I can switch into in my head.
Interestingly I got Neither on the quiz, apparently I'm the control group. I have no idea whether there's any correlation or causation there!
Oh. This explains why accents sound so great in my head but when I try to speak in the same Scottish accent it comes out as Australian with the harshness of Russian. And sometimes some South...
Oh. This explains why accents sound so great in my head but when I try to speak in the same Scottish accent it comes out as Australian with the harshness of Russian. And sometimes some South African winds up in there. Must be missing a translation layer in there - devs fix please.
Huh, til, I have a very large and flexible inner monologue. It's like ten different conversations in here, with my voice as default, but music, accents, imagined and real voices, all at various...
Huh, til, I have a very large and flexible inner monologue. It's like ten different conversations in here, with my voice as default, but music, accents, imagined and real voices, all at various levels of my attention.
Yeah! I watched a video on it recently. You are in the group of people with very active inner monologues. Are you able to make the voices in your head make accents and talk in pitches that you...
Yeah! I watched a video on it recently. You are in the group of people with very active inner monologues. Are you able to make the voices in your head make accents and talk in pitches that you can't do physically yourself?
I definitely can do this. In fact at one point as a child I was frustrated at the realisation that just because I can imagine a sound, does not mean I am physically capable of making said sound.
I definitely can do this. In fact at one point as a child I was frustrated at the realisation that just because I can imagine a sound, does not mean I am physically capable of making said sound.
So a normal inner monologue is actually perceived like a real voice that you can hear? Like, you could describe its quality (gravelly, smooth, high/low pitch, etc)?
So a normal inner monologue is actually perceived like a real voice that you can hear? Like, you could describe its quality (gravelly, smooth, high/low pitch, etc)?
For me, a similar experience to @kaffo by the sound of it, I have more of an abstract sense of the words than it feeling like a voice I can hear. It turns out I can vary the pitch, having just...
For me, a similar experience to @kaffo by the sound of it, I have more of an abstract sense of the words than it feeling like a voice I can hear. It turns out I can vary the pitch, having just tried it, but it's more like it varies the sense of the word rather than something I'd describe as being able to hear. I can clearly shape syllables and vary the quality that would resolve into sound if I were to speak. It's kind of more like the impression left in a sofa after you get up, you can feel the shape of it but it's not actually there. I wouldn't say it has a defined gravelly/smoothness though.
For me my internal monologue is everything I'm reading or planning to write, though I also have voiced thoughts that can be entirely internal; for instance, when I'm in the shower I often reflect on the things going on in my life and that will be me thinking to my self like a conversation with only one participant. I don't really ever get anyone else's voice in my head or music or anything, and all my internal thoughts feel like me, which sounds quite different from @atchemey's experience.
Interestingly I do hear the words of text I'm reading in my head, unlike @nemo.
I find the difference in internal experience fascinating! What's yours like?
It's not anybody else's voice, it's more like... Trains of my thoughts that are going in parallel tracks. If you are far away, you can see them all at low detail. Or I can go close to one and...
It's not anybody else's voice, it's more like... Trains of my thoughts that are going in parallel tracks. If you are far away, you can see them all at low detail. Or I can go close to one and really focus on it and get a lot more detail... But those other trains are still there.
When I'm trying to explain this, for example, I feel out different words similtaneously, different trains of thought, different ways to express what I'm feeling, and then choose one. All of them are me, my voice by default, but just like I could imagine different color trains or different models, I can imagine them with different voices.
Inner monologues can be very different in presence. Like @rich_27 said, it can be quite unclear, hard to parse and maybe something you can't control or consciously think about. In my case, it...
Inner monologues can be very different in presence. Like @rich_27 said, it can be quite unclear, hard to parse and maybe something you can't control or consciously think about. In my case, it sounds just like I'm talking to be honest. I can vary the voice in my head in the exact same way I do my spoken voice and in a weird way it feels like flexing the same muscle. Though I'd say I do have a little more range in my head than reality. I guess like trying to draw a perfect circle, it's easy to imagine and difficult to actually do without practice.
But then you get much stronger inner monologues which can actually be more than one voice, like a chorus. They can vary a lot in pitch, accent, loudness, etc.
I think in images, I’m constantly having to translate into English in order to communicate and thats actually pretty time consuming and exhausting. A lot of the time I’m pretty tired and I take a...
I think in images, I’m constantly having to translate into English in order to communicate and thats actually pretty time consuming and exhausting. A lot of the time I’m pretty tired and I take a while to answer questions people ask me.
......... 13% German, 80% Autistic I'm autistic and german, but I never understood the whole joke about german and autism in the first place, as I'm having issues with all the aspects people...
.........
13% German, 80% Autistic
I'm autistic and german, but I never understood the whole joke about german and autism in the first place, as I'm having issues with all the aspects people frequently list when they are talking about german society / culture being "autistic" or "autism friendly".
For example, people claim that germans are very direct. As an autistic german, I can't confirm this. I have daily struggles with people in my environment about essentially nobody ever really being direct about anything.
Germans have all the issues anyone else have in these regards, they are just packaged differently.
Ultimately I think equating Germans cultural "directness" with autism relies a lot on stereotypes and on comparison between German social norms and those in other countries. Germans do tend to be...
Ultimately I think equating Germans cultural "directness" with autism relies a lot on stereotypes and on comparison between German social norms and those in other countries. Germans do tend to be more direct than Americans as a rule... at least about certain things in certain social contexts. But this doesn't entail that Germans don't have indirectness or social norms that autistic people struggle with in practice. Americans and others from outside Germany are just seeing superficial similarities between someone who struggles with or doesn't care about following certain social norms in our culture and a culture in which those social norms differ slightly.
Ultimately this quiz comes down to joking around about stereotypes, which can be fun, but obviously doesn't reflect what it's actually like to be autistic or German. I think that can be fun when it's joking around (and a lot of the German stereotypes in this quiz definitely do have some basis in reality from my experience as a foreigner in Germany), but frustrating when people more seriously suggest that Germany is some sort of autistic paradise. I think this quiz is lighthearted and does distinguish between the stereotypical German and autism symptoms in ways that ring true to me, so I'm not bothered by it, but I've definitely been very annoyed when I see Tiktoks or other social media posts that play the "Germany is autistic" sentiment more straight.
It's not the directness; it's the rigid adherence to rules in a way that seems bizarre to outsiders. Obviously, a lot of neurotypical people find a lot of common behaviors in autistic people to be...
It's not the directness; it's the rigid adherence to rules in a way that seems bizarre to outsiders. Obviously, a lot of neurotypical people find a lot of common behaviors in autistic people to be quite bizarre—even the milder behaviors, like insisting on using the little fork and spoon for your whole life just because it's what you got used to as a kid. Similarly, people find Germans refusing to cross the road even if there aren't any cars for kilometers, the entire bureaucracy being based on the concept of "das ist verboten," etc. as being a bit...weird.
I think ultimately some of the stereotypes are based on truths about at least a subset of Germans (the road-crossing thing, separating professional and private life) and other things are based on...
I think ultimately some of the stereotypes are based on truths about at least a subset of Germans (the road-crossing thing, separating professional and private life) and other things are based on such an absurd charicature that it not only fails to resemble actual German culture, but ends up being weirdly the opposite (the way the bureaucracy works, for instance, involves individual bureaucrats having a lot of latitude based on their personal judgment, and as a result if anything is less "das ist verboten"-esque than US bureaucracy tends to be). Also, the directness is definitely part of it -- directness in speech and hatred of small talk constituted a pretty large fraction of the questions on this test.
Autism, by contrast, tends to be stereotyped (particularly in media) in a way that matches the "Both" category here better than the autism-only answers. The key difference seemed to be, to me, a rigid assurance that your way is best and others are inferior for being different, which does definitely match my experience of German culture when it most matches these stereotypes. Answers that gave you higher scores for autism but not German tended to be those that expressed uncertainty and confusion rather than smug self-superiority. Honestly, as someone who fell into that category, I appreciated there being a distinction made there.
That is 100% the opposite of my experience with German bureaucracy. In fact, in the US I remember learning in school about the discretion granted to bureaucrats (including the police). German...
(the way the bureaucracy works, for instance, involves individual bureaucrats having a lot of latitude based on their personal judgment, and as a result if anything is less "das ist verboten"-esque than US bureaucracy tends to be)
That is 100% the opposite of my experience with German bureaucracy. In fact, in the US I remember learning in school about the discretion granted to bureaucrats (including the police). German bureaucrats, on the other hand, leave the glass door locked in sub-freezing weather because their lunch break doesn't end until 13:00. My experiences with Germans have been heavily "Verboten-coded."
I lived in Germany for almost eight years and am still technically in the process of court proceedings against the Jobcenter for denying me unemployment benefits, so I've endured my fair share of...
I lived in Germany for almost eight years and am still technically in the process of court proceedings against the Jobcenter for denying me unemployment benefits, so I've endured my fair share of their bureaucracy myself. Bureaucrats do have a high degree of latitude when it comes to many matters, and I've been on the receiving end of it many times, often to my benefit. I once went to an appointment to apply for a residence permit straightforwardly missing some required documents, and while I was lectured hard enough I was crying leaving his office, the bureaucrat was shockingly generous in the temporary residence permit I was granted and the amount of time I was given to acquire what I was missing.
Of course, part of the bad side of the high degree of latitude is that German bureaucrats can also choose to give you a lot of trouble if they personally feel like it, so you're at the mercy of the individual bureaucrats you encounter, which you have very little control over. But if a German bureaucrat fucks you over, they're usually choosing to do so in my experience, not blindly following procedure and refusing to bend rules they have no power over.
This is amazing. My wife is German (decent) and incredibly anal. She scored Both to my Neither and we're having a very good laugh that we both feel well represented by our representative...
This is amazing. My wife is German (decent) and incredibly anal. She scored Both to my Neither and we're having a very good laugh that we both feel well represented by our representative conclusion statements.
Same here. (I was just complaining about Espinoza last night to my partner, using Wittgenstein as an example of what philosophy could/should/would be, so I am somewhat tickled to be lumped in with...
Same here. (I was just complaining about Espinoza last night to my partner, using Wittgenstein as an example of what philosophy could/should/would be, so I am somewhat tickled to be lumped in with him and his irritation at “the gap between how things are and how they ought to be.”)
I have struggled with that gap my entire life. It leads me to some very interesting places in thinking, because I guess my brain doesn't see problems in the same manner as most people's do...
I have struggled with that gap my entire life. It leads me to some very interesting places in thinking, because I guess my brain doesn't see problems in the same manner as most people's do...
As someone living in Germany and who thinks a lot about this topic, this was great to see. Interesting take on the responses, with the German and autistic ones usually only differing in reasoning...
As someone living in Germany and who thinks a lot about this topic, this was great to see. Interesting take on the responses, with the German and autistic ones usually only differing in reasoning and not result. I got neither, 13% for each.
Relatedly, I appreciated this “quiz” specifically because it forced me to introspect and create a hierarchy of thoughts/values for a few things for which I hadn’t. Like punctuality is important to...
Relatedly, I appreciated this “quiz” specifically because it forced me to introspect and create a hierarchy of thoughts/values for a few things for which I hadn’t.
Like punctuality is important to me and I usually will have 2 or 3 alternatives for how to get somewhere on time depending on how things shake out. But even though punctuality is nonnegotiable it’s only so because it’s a moral obligation to me, or proximate to one.
The moral obligation framing is more associated with the "German" or "Both" answers on this quiz than the "Autistic" ones. The description for "German but probably not autistic" references Kant...
The moral obligation framing is more associated with the "German" or "Both" answers on this quiz than the "Autistic" ones. The description for "German but probably not autistic" references Kant for a reason. The "Autistic but not German" description instead references Wittgenstein and focuses on figuring out things that confuse you, not any moral imperative to behave in a certain way.
Agreed and I was “German” at 49%. Out of curiosity I poked around the rest of the quizzes; I got 10/10 on the Nietzsche one and 1/25 (Gelassenheit) on the Heidegger one. I’m a p hardcore...
Agreed and I was “German” at 49%.
Out of curiosity I poked around the rest of the quizzes; I got 10/10 on the Nietzsche one and 1/25 (Gelassenheit) on the Heidegger one. I’m a p hardcore existentialist so I guess it all tracks.
Thanks for explaining that one. I think of my dad's moral imperatives based on things that I've had to learn since becoming an adult that they aren't moral issues; they're just things my dad...
Thanks for explaining that one. I think of my dad's moral imperatives based on things that I've had to learn since becoming an adult that they aren't moral issues; they're just things my dad valued and fixated on due to his autism. I think of Germans as viewing it more as a social obligation than a moral obligation. But four short answers per question limits the nuance they can impart.
Boy that last question was really painful to answer. None of those are the “real problem with the world” by a long shot. If we try to answer the question as objectively as possible, the real...
Boy that last question was really painful to answer. None of those are the “real problem with the world” by a long shot.
If we try to answer the question as objectively as possible, the real answer is man made climate change. We systematically destroy biomes at our convenience and in a global level we are destroying the atmosphere, something that affects not only us humans but all living things on the planet.
If we take “the world” to be society, I’ve got plenty of better options:
unchecked capitalism
the inability of people to recognize fascism
the corruption of power in general
cultures where it is acceptable to not have compassion for “others”.
I got normal. I’m just very anal and have opinions. Many many opinions. Although I do have to say I appreciate that the result page called out the possibility of me just presenting well. I will...
I got normal. I’m just very anal and have opinions. Many many opinions.
Although I do have to say I appreciate that the result page called out the possibility of me just presenting well. I will admit that I find it amusing to try to unwrap the questions in personality tests to figure out why they are asking and what the answers represent. I did try to answer honestly though.
I don't think this is actually well-thought-out in terms of answering the question as objectively as possible as it was intended. Man-made climate change is one of if not the biggest threat facing...
If we try to answer the question as objectively as possible, the real answer is man made climate change.
I don't think this is actually well-thought-out in terms of answering the question as objectively as possible as it was intended. Man-made climate change is one of if not the biggest threat facing humanity right now, but it could be addressed much more easily (and could have been addressed much more effectively in the past) were it not for several more fundamental problems with us as people and our human societies that underlie both our failure to effectively combat climate change and a variety of the other greatest problems for modern humans (many of which I believe are included in your bullet points). The question aims to get at the fundamental reason why these problems persist on a more philosophical level.
lol that was fun, I got 36% Autistic and 36% German. Thus neither, and therefore part of the control group. I also find this a little funny as my sibling is autistic, and we’re not German, but we...
lol that was fun, I got 36% Autistic and 36% German. Thus neither, and therefore part of the control group.
I also find this a little funny as my sibling is autistic, and we’re not German, but we are Midwestern (USA)…and my great grandparents on at least one side did come over from Germany (but I would not consider myself German as I was raised with very few cultural connections to Germany).
56% German, 20% autistic. Some of my answers were between two of the options, but generally I'm confident in my answers. Edit: went back to see how one different answer changes things, that bumped...
56% German, 20% autistic. Some of my answers were between two of the options, but generally I'm confident in my answers.
Edit: went back to see how one different answer changes things, that bumped me to 60% German and 22% autistic.
I took the German or Autistic diagnostic and scored Neither. I am apparently the control group. 24% German and 36% autistic Because I'm still neurodivergent just a different variety
I took the German or Autistic diagnostic and scored Neither. I am apparently the control group.
24% German and 36% autistic
You are, as far as this diagnostic can establish, neither specifically German in your cognitive habits nor particularly autistic in your neurological profile. You are something rarer in the context of people who take quizzes like this: apparently normal about it.
This may mean the questions didn't land correctly. It may mean you're better at self-presentation than self-report. It may mean you are, in fact, just a person who functions reasonably well in the world without particular extremes in either direction.
Aristotle thought the good was the mean between extremes. He was, by all accounts, an extremely systematic thinker who built one of the most comprehensive philosophical systems in history. Make of that what you will.
You probably ended up here through social media, which means someone you follow scored either Both or German. They sent it to you as a question or a joke. You are their control group.
Because I'm still neurodivergent just a different variety
Yes, that appears to be so. I tried it again today and changed one answer that I'd been havering on. That took my the score for Autistic from 38% to 40%, and changed the result from saying German...
Yes, that appears to be so. I tried it again today and changed one answer that I'd been havering on. That took my the score for Autistic from 38% to 40%, and changed the result from saying German to Both.
49% German and 38% Autistic. Amusingly, the plurality of my ancestry is German. And I did once have a coworker in Germany joke about me acting like a German when I showed up a minute early to an...
Your Result
German Probably not autistic. Probably.
49% German and 38% Autistic.
Amusingly, the plurality of my ancestry is German. And I did once have a coworker in Germany joke about me acting like a German when I showed up a minute early to an online meeting.
(Though normally I'd say I'm orderly and methodical to the point where that interferes with punctuality! E.g. "It's X minutes till I have to go. Surely I've got time for one more task before then, right?")
Edit: Took it again the next day, changed one answer I was havering on last night. New result: 47% German, 40% autistic. "Result: Both. The Wittgenstein Result."
I have only seen my results, so I'm possibly giving them to much weight, but I didn't read this quiz as having anything to do with either germanism or autism but rather a way to introduce us...
I have only seen my results, so I'm possibly giving them to much weight, but I didn't read this quiz as having anything to do with either germanism or autism but rather a way to introduce us gently to philosophy/-ers.
I took this in bed right before falling asleep so I forgot the exsct numbers but I was somewhere around 12% German and 40-something percent autistic. Which makes sense, as I both have autism and a...
I took this in bed right before falling asleep so I forgot the exsct numbers but I was somewhere around 12% German and 40-something percent autistic. Which makes sense, as I both have autism and a live-and-let-live attitude that is very un-German. I'm simply not good enough at lecturing people for that.
20% German, 76% autistic. Results: Autistic. Not necessarily German about it. Can't say I'm surprised. Consider it another point on the I-probably-should-get-tested list. I did waffle a bit on my...
20% German, 76% autistic. Results: Autistic. Not necessarily German about it.
Can't say I'm surprised. Consider it another point on the I-probably-should-get-tested list. I did waffle a bit on my answer to the question about someone giving you unclear instructions. I ended up selecting the "quietly distressed" option, but, if I am comfortable with the person, I would ask for clarification once. If the second response was still unclear, I would then fall in the quietly distressed camp as it would feel inappropriate to ask again. Kind of like asking someone to repeat themselves when you didn't hear them, and just smiling and nodding if you still can't make out what they said
There's a joke that the hidden purpose of autism assessments is to see how often the respondent asks for clarification on the questions or gets frustrated with the vagueness. I also felt the same...
There's a joke that the hidden purpose of autism assessments is to see how often the respondent asks for clarification on the questions or gets frustrated with the vagueness.
I also felt the same as you on that question. There were a few that I was like "well that really depends on many circumstances, I need more information to provide an honest answer"
Anyway my results were very close to yours - 29% German 73% autistic. I also should probably get tested but there's only two qualified psychiatrists in my province to do true assessments and they only take referrals and are booked out like 9 months in advance :/
I use my level of frustration as a way to determine what a reasonable option to answer is. I'm tired of trying to guess and interpret vague questions about things I really don't care about anyway....
There's a joke that the hidden purpose of autism assessments is to see how often the respondent asks for clarification on the questions or gets frustrated with the vagueness.
I use my level of frustration as a way to determine what a reasonable option to answer is.
I'm tired of trying to guess and interpret vague questions about things I really don't care about anyway. So when it doesn't matter (like here, and in most instances) I just pick the option that irritates me the most; a bit like a second gut when the first gut doesn't get a feeling!
Fun! I was "neither," which the quiz said was rare based on those who complete it. But I took it "as" my son, guessing his answers and got "both," with Ludwig Wittgenstein as the example. My son...
Fun! I was "neither," which the quiz said was rare based on those who complete it.
But I took it "as" my son, guessing his answers and got "both," with Ludwig Wittgenstein as the example.
My son then took it at got "autistic but not German," meaning that my personal image of his phenomenology is far too German (and not autistic enough, based on the numbers).
I'll have to go back through the items with him. Now, to get his mom to answer. :)
42% German, 49% autistic. I was diagnosed with autism 3 months ago. I'm also Brazilian, which I'm sure pretty is the exact opposite of Germany. I think I would adapt well to Germany as well as...
42% German, 49% autistic. I was diagnosed with autism 3 months ago. I'm also Brazilian, which I'm sure pretty is the exact opposite of Germany.
I think I would adapt well to Germany as well as nordic countries. According to my sister who lives in Sweden I am basically Swedish.
Looks like I'm German. At more than 50% German, I'm the second most German person here at time of writing, even though I'm not actually German. But I'll take it! I do like Kant! (Also 30% Autistic.)
Looks like I'm German. At more than 50% German, I'm the second most German person here at time of writing, even though I'm not actually German. But I'll take it! I do like Kant!
I took the quiz and got 60% German. I’m pretty sure I’m autistic and doing post hoc justification as to why my behavior is socially positive, and so I get German.
Anyway, I sent this to a friend who got neither and it said to him the following.
I got absolutely and unreasonably accurately called out. Unbelievable.
I like how that frames the experiment as being about trying to effectively diagnose Germans.
40% German, 60% autistic. I'm inordinately pleased that they add up to 100%
Somehow, 34% German, 68% autistic, and the fact that the numbers don't add up to 100% is breaking me. What did I do wrong?
I think you can be both? If you believe in yourself???
I'm not sure if this was there when you took it, but when my mother took it there was small text that indicated the percentages are independent of each other and thus probably won't add up to 100%. You can be both German and autistic or neither, after all.
TBH, I'd assumed that and was whining about the math out of sheer peevishness that they'd commit such an irregularity. But I don't know if that irritation is German or autistic.
I'm 60% German and 56% autistic. Beneath the result it says "Scores are independent — they don't need to add up to 100%" which bothers both the German and autistic sides of me.
I got 50% and 51% and I was definitely discomforted by it not adding up cleanly. Which felt fitting in a way.
20% German, 53% Autistic. What is the remaining 27%?!
I need to lie down.
Ich bin 44% deutsch und 38% autistisch. "Probably not autistic. Probably."
Also:
Hell yeah.
It’s interesting that there is no option for “I don’t have an inner monologue”. I have one, a loud one, which is saying the things I’m typing right now, but I know this is not universal and some people are completely without.
I used to have one, but now I have a soundtrack. Mine's currently playing All I Need by Radiohead as I type this. I'm not sure what happened, or where my internal monologue went. It just... stopped one day. Not sure why, either, while I'm at it. I don't even remember when it went away.
I've never heard anyone else say they have a soundtrack before! I do too. It's either thinking in full sentences, or constant music playing in my head. There's never a moment of quiet lol.
ETA: Todays song has been the intro theme to Frieren!
I've got one as well, but sometime it overlaps with my inner monologue. I think it's common amongst ADHD types.
Yup, soundtrack at all times. Right now my brain is playing parts of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's song "Satan Said Dance" -- Fortunately my brain doesn't tend to get stuck on just one song. People ask me why I don't listen to music all the time and it's like "but I do? I'm never not hearing a soundtrack."
When "Le Poisson Steve" was trending on tiktok it was in my head for like TWO WEEKS. The longer it was there, the more distorted it got. It was awful lmao.
I do listen to music now and again to restart my brain. For some reason I had Footloose running through my head, but I’ve gotten it to swap to “life’s a beach” by hard life (formerly easy life, before the lawsuit.)
All. The. Time. Music.
Except when I type/write someting, my mind tells me what ever I'm writing, but the soundtrack is still there, however if needed it gets quiet not to disturb my mind speaking to me words I'm typing at the moment.
Once we've been hiking in the winter with friends one of them asked me how many songs do I know, because I've been humming dozens of them, not repeating a single one throughout every hour of our hike. I was surprised by their observation and realized I've been really doing this, not just on the trip, but probably most of my life.
Yes, probably that's connected to me wanting to go to music school as a kid and in the end finishing music degree. However, it is so random, choosing the songs to play by my brain, no constant plan, just like a cat seeing something moving and rushing towards it. Constant radio playing various stuff all the time. I'd love to be able to choose what gets played, though.
[edit]
One more interesting thing I've just recalled - this brain activity probably helped with learning languages, because well, they also are kind of music - all of them have some melody. And repeating phrases constantly (because they resemble a phrase of a song) helps to grasp the accent and memorize the melody of the language.
You reminded me of this scene
Hmm. I’m also pretty decent with language, though I for sure don’t have much proficiency in any of the ones that I “know” simply because I slip back into English the moment things get fatiguing in French or Spanish, German or Swedish, or Japanese. But I’m told that when I do speak them I tend to have a fairly understandable accent. This is especially helpful with Japanese, which has a pitch accent.
I don't know if I have an inner monologue. I don't notice it when I am not thinking about it, and when I am, all I can think about is if I'm currently thinking in words, which of course, is accomplished with words.
My understanding (likely horribly wrong) is if you hear any voice in your head that you can make say any word it counts as an inner monologue.
When you read this text, do you hear the words in your head? If you try can you make a voice in your head say the words on the screen?
Some people have extreme control over their inner monologue and can get it to have full conversations, imitate all ranges and tones of voice, even sing.
Mine is very grounded in that it's exactly like if I was reading out loud, but in my head. I'm "saying" the words I'm typing in my head as I do it in my own voice. Sometimes I stop and think about the next sentence by talking it through in my head like I would put loud.
But I can't do much fun with it. Sometimes if I watch a lot of TV or something it'll get stuck in the voice of a character or something for a bit which is funny. If I remember it I can try and put it on in my head but I'm not very imaginative lol.
This pretty much exactly mirrors my experience, though I can switch into accents as well - those that I can do speaking out loud. I'm pretty good with certain accents out loud (D&D player who likes voiced characters), and those are the ones I can switch into in my head.
Interestingly I got Neither on the quiz, apparently I'm the control group. I have no idea whether there's any correlation or causation there!
Oh. This explains why accents sound so great in my head but when I try to speak in the same Scottish accent it comes out as Australian with the harshness of Russian. And sometimes some South African winds up in there. Must be missing a translation layer in there - devs fix please.
Huh, til, I have a very large and flexible inner monologue. It's like ten different conversations in here, with my voice as default, but music, accents, imagined and real voices, all at various levels of my attention.
Sounds very different from your experience!
Yeah! I watched a video on it recently. You are in the group of people with very active inner monologues. Are you able to make the voices in your head make accents and talk in pitches that you can't do physically yourself?
I definitely can do this. In fact at one point as a child I was frustrated at the realisation that just because I can imagine a sound, does not mean I am physically capable of making said sound.
I am doing it right now, just to show I can.
No, I hear the commentary on the words I'm reading. The read words are silent because they're not mine.
So a normal inner monologue is actually perceived like a real voice that you can hear? Like, you could describe its quality (gravelly, smooth, high/low pitch, etc)?
For me, a similar experience to @kaffo by the sound of it, I have more of an abstract sense of the words than it feeling like a voice I can hear. It turns out I can vary the pitch, having just tried it, but it's more like it varies the sense of the word rather than something I'd describe as being able to hear. I can clearly shape syllables and vary the quality that would resolve into sound if I were to speak. It's kind of more like the impression left in a sofa after you get up, you can feel the shape of it but it's not actually there. I wouldn't say it has a defined gravelly/smoothness though.
For me my internal monologue is everything I'm reading or planning to write, though I also have voiced thoughts that can be entirely internal; for instance, when I'm in the shower I often reflect on the things going on in my life and that will be me thinking to my self like a conversation with only one participant. I don't really ever get anyone else's voice in my head or music or anything, and all my internal thoughts feel like me, which sounds quite different from @atchemey's experience.
Interestingly I do hear the words of text I'm reading in my head, unlike @nemo.
I find the difference in internal experience fascinating! What's yours like?
It's not anybody else's voice, it's more like... Trains of my thoughts that are going in parallel tracks. If you are far away, you can see them all at low detail. Or I can go close to one and really focus on it and get a lot more detail... But those other trains are still there.
When I'm trying to explain this, for example, I feel out different words similtaneously, different trains of thought, different ways to express what I'm feeling, and then choose one. All of them are me, my voice by default, but just like I could imagine different color trains or different models, I can imagine them with different voices.
This description is the closest to mine, I think.
Inner monologues can be very different in presence. Like @rich_27 said, it can be quite unclear, hard to parse and maybe something you can't control or consciously think about. In my case, it sounds just like I'm talking to be honest. I can vary the voice in my head in the exact same way I do my spoken voice and in a weird way it feels like flexing the same muscle. Though I'd say I do have a little more range in my head than reality. I guess like trying to draw a perfect circle, it's easy to imagine and difficult to actually do without practice.
But then you get much stronger inner monologues which can actually be more than one voice, like a chorus. They can vary a lot in pitch, accent, loudness, etc.
When I'm thinking about my internal monologue, the monologue starts to form very slight movements of vocal cords and tongue.
Yeah, there were a few questions without answers I agreed with but in those I just picked one. I also got neither which may explain the technique.
I think in images, I’m constantly having to translate into English in order to communicate and thats actually pretty time consuming and exhausting. A lot of the time I’m pretty tired and I take a while to answer questions people ask me.
.........
13% German, 80% Autistic
I'm autistic and german, but I never understood the whole joke about german and autism in the first place, as I'm having issues with all the aspects people frequently list when they are talking about german society / culture being "autistic" or "autism friendly".
For example, people claim that germans are very direct. As an autistic german, I can't confirm this. I have daily struggles with people in my environment about essentially nobody ever really being direct about anything.
Germans have all the issues anyone else have in these regards, they are just packaged differently.
Ultimately I think equating Germans cultural "directness" with autism relies a lot on stereotypes and on comparison between German social norms and those in other countries. Germans do tend to be more direct than Americans as a rule... at least about certain things in certain social contexts. But this doesn't entail that Germans don't have indirectness or social norms that autistic people struggle with in practice. Americans and others from outside Germany are just seeing superficial similarities between someone who struggles with or doesn't care about following certain social norms in our culture and a culture in which those social norms differ slightly.
Ultimately this quiz comes down to joking around about stereotypes, which can be fun, but obviously doesn't reflect what it's actually like to be autistic or German. I think that can be fun when it's joking around (and a lot of the German stereotypes in this quiz definitely do have some basis in reality from my experience as a foreigner in Germany), but frustrating when people more seriously suggest that Germany is some sort of autistic paradise. I think this quiz is lighthearted and does distinguish between the stereotypical German and autism symptoms in ways that ring true to me, so I'm not bothered by it, but I've definitely been very annoyed when I see Tiktoks or other social media posts that play the "Germany is autistic" sentiment more straight.
It's not the directness; it's the rigid adherence to rules in a way that seems bizarre to outsiders. Obviously, a lot of neurotypical people find a lot of common behaviors in autistic people to be quite bizarre—even the milder behaviors, like insisting on using the little fork and spoon for your whole life just because it's what you got used to as a kid. Similarly, people find Germans refusing to cross the road even if there aren't any cars for kilometers, the entire bureaucracy being based on the concept of "das ist verboten," etc. as being a bit...weird.
I think ultimately some of the stereotypes are based on truths about at least a subset of Germans (the road-crossing thing, separating professional and private life) and other things are based on such an absurd charicature that it not only fails to resemble actual German culture, but ends up being weirdly the opposite (the way the bureaucracy works, for instance, involves individual bureaucrats having a lot of latitude based on their personal judgment, and as a result if anything is less "das ist verboten"-esque than US bureaucracy tends to be). Also, the directness is definitely part of it -- directness in speech and hatred of small talk constituted a pretty large fraction of the questions on this test.
Autism, by contrast, tends to be stereotyped (particularly in media) in a way that matches the "Both" category here better than the autism-only answers. The key difference seemed to be, to me, a rigid assurance that your way is best and others are inferior for being different, which does definitely match my experience of German culture when it most matches these stereotypes. Answers that gave you higher scores for autism but not German tended to be those that expressed uncertainty and confusion rather than smug self-superiority. Honestly, as someone who fell into that category, I appreciated there being a distinction made there.
That is 100% the opposite of my experience with German bureaucracy. In fact, in the US I remember learning in school about the discretion granted to bureaucrats (including the police). German bureaucrats, on the other hand, leave the glass door locked in sub-freezing weather because their lunch break doesn't end until 13:00. My experiences with Germans have been heavily "Verboten-coded."
I lived in Germany for almost eight years and am still technically in the process of court proceedings against the Jobcenter for denying me unemployment benefits, so I've endured my fair share of their bureaucracy myself. Bureaucrats do have a high degree of latitude when it comes to many matters, and I've been on the receiving end of it many times, often to my benefit. I once went to an appointment to apply for a residence permit straightforwardly missing some required documents, and while I was lectured hard enough I was crying leaving his office, the bureaucrat was shockingly generous in the temporary residence permit I was granted and the amount of time I was given to acquire what I was missing.
Of course, part of the bad side of the high degree of latitude is that German bureaucrats can also choose to give you a lot of trouble if they personally feel like it, so you're at the mercy of the individual bureaucrats you encounter, which you have very little control over. But if a German bureaucrat fucks you over, they're usually choosing to do so in my experience, not blindly following procedure and refusing to bend rules they have no power over.
This is amazing. My wife is German (decent) and incredibly anal. She scored Both to my Neither and we're having a very good laugh that we both feel well represented by our representative conclusion statements.
Ja, das ist richtig.
Same here. (I was just complaining about Espinoza last night to my partner, using Wittgenstein as an example of what philosophy could/should/would be, so I am somewhat tickled to be lumped in with him and his irritation at “the gap between how things are and how they ought to be.”)
I have struggled with that gap my entire life. It leads me to some very interesting places in thinking, because I guess my brain doesn't see problems in the same manner as most people's do...
Same here!
I'm still not sure if I'm proud or concerned. All I know is that Wittgenstein was a beery swine who was just as shloshed as Schlegel.
I took the German or Autistic diagnostic and scored Neither. I am apparently the control group.
I think this is the funniest result I could get
As someone living in Germany and who thinks a lot about this topic, this was great to see. Interesting take on the responses, with the German and autistic ones usually only differing in reasoning and not result. I got neither, 13% for each.
Relatedly, I appreciated this “quiz” specifically because it forced me to introspect and create a hierarchy of thoughts/values for a few things for which I hadn’t.
Like punctuality is important to me and I usually will have 2 or 3 alternatives for how to get somewhere on time depending on how things shake out. But even though punctuality is nonnegotiable it’s only so because it’s a moral obligation to me, or proximate to one.
So, can I guess that you either scored Both or Autistic? That "moral obligation" framing definitely triggers my spidey sense.
The moral obligation framing is more associated with the "German" or "Both" answers on this quiz than the "Autistic" ones. The description for "German but probably not autistic" references Kant for a reason. The "Autistic but not German" description instead references Wittgenstein and focuses on figuring out things that confuse you, not any moral imperative to behave in a certain way.
Agreed and I was “German” at 49%.
Out of curiosity I poked around the rest of the quizzes; I got 10/10 on the Nietzsche one and 1/25 (Gelassenheit) on the Heidegger one. I’m a p hardcore existentialist so I guess it all tracks.
Thanks for explaining that one. I think of my dad's moral imperatives based on things that I've had to learn since becoming an adult that they aren't moral issues; they're just things my dad valued and fixated on due to his autism. I think of Germans as viewing it more as a social obligation than a moral obligation. But four short answers per question limits the nuance they can impart.
Ich spreche mehr Deutsch als ich bin, aber I like this quiz! Apparently I'm Kant-y!
Yaaaas queen!
Feeling Kanty, might put on the lederhosen l8r IDK 😘😘
Boy that last question was really painful to answer. None of those are the “real problem with the world” by a long shot.
If we try to answer the question as objectively as possible, the real answer is man made climate change. We systematically destroy biomes at our convenience and in a global level we are destroying the atmosphere, something that affects not only us humans but all living things on the planet.
If we take “the world” to be society, I’ve got plenty of better options:
Tell me you got Wittgenstein without telling me you got Wittgenstein!
Just kidding, you're right ofc.
I got normal. I’m just very anal and have opinions. Many many opinions.
Although I do have to say I appreciate that the result page called out the possibility of me just presenting well. I will admit that I find it amusing to try to unwrap the questions in personality tests to figure out why they are asking and what the answers represent. I did try to answer honestly though.
He he, OK :)
I would love to have you on speed dial while filling out forms!
I don't think this is actually well-thought-out in terms of answering the question as objectively as possible as it was intended. Man-made climate change is one of if not the biggest threat facing humanity right now, but it could be addressed much more easily (and could have been addressed much more effectively in the past) were it not for several more fundamental problems with us as people and our human societies that underlie both our failure to effectively combat climate change and a variety of the other greatest problems for modern humans (many of which I believe are included in your bullet points). The question aims to get at the fundamental reason why these problems persist on a more philosophical level.
Well shit, I'm both.
49% Autistic and 29% German
Hmm, never thought of myself as autistic.
lol that was fun, I got 36% Autistic and 36% German. Thus neither, and therefore part of the control group.
I also find this a little funny as my sibling is autistic, and we’re not German, but we are Midwestern (USA)…and my great grandparents on at least one side did come over from Germany (but I would not consider myself German as I was raised with very few cultural connections to Germany).
56% German, 20% autistic. Some of my answers were between two of the options, but generally I'm confident in my answers.
Edit: went back to see how one different answer changes things, that bumped me to 60% German and 22% autistic.
Answering genuinely, I got 36% German 9% autistic. Which I suppose isn’t a very interesting result.
I got Both 47% German and 40% autistic.....what is the other 13%?!?!
I think they're independent axes: you're 47/100 German and 40/100 autistic. A friend scored upper 70-80+ for both
I took the German or Autistic diagnostic and scored Neither. I am apparently the control group.
24% German and 36% autistic
Because I'm still neurodivergent just a different variety
I counted as Autistic with 42%, so I think they treat 40% as the threshold.
Probably. I'm AFAB ADHD and am over empathetic and/or faking it so well I've tricked myself that I am
Yes, that appears to be so. I tried it again today and changed one answer that I'd been havering on. That took my the score for Autistic from 38% to 40%, and changed the result from saying German to Both.
Scandinavian?
Got none of that in my history (or present) mostly Italian (and most of that Sardinian) so idk what that says
Mamma mia
31% German 27% Autistic thus neither. Fun little test.
49% German and 38% Autistic.
Amusingly, the plurality of my ancestry is German. And I did once have a coworker in Germany joke about me acting like a German when I showed up a minute early to an online meeting.
(Though normally I'd say I'm orderly and methodical to the point where that interferes with punctuality! E.g. "It's X minutes till I have to go. Surely I've got time for one more task before then, right?")
Edit: Took it again the next day, changed one answer I was havering on last night. New result: 47% German, 40% autistic. "Result: Both. The Wittgenstein Result."
I have only seen my results, so I'm possibly giving them to much weight, but I didn't read this quiz as having anything to do with either germanism or autism but rather a way to introduce us gently to philosophy/-ers.
I took this in bed right before falling asleep so I forgot the exsct numbers but I was somewhere around 12% German and 40-something percent autistic. Which makes sense, as I both have autism and a live-and-let-live attitude that is very un-German. I'm simply not good enough at lecturing people for that.
20% German, 76% autistic. Results: Autistic. Not necessarily German about it.
Can't say I'm surprised. Consider it another point on the I-probably-should-get-tested list. I did waffle a bit on my answer to the question about someone giving you unclear instructions. I ended up selecting the "quietly distressed" option, but, if I am comfortable with the person, I would ask for clarification once. If the second response was still unclear, I would then fall in the quietly distressed camp as it would feel inappropriate to ask again. Kind of like asking someone to repeat themselves when you didn't hear them, and just smiling and nodding if you still can't make out what they said
There's a joke that the hidden purpose of autism assessments is to see how often the respondent asks for clarification on the questions or gets frustrated with the vagueness.
I also felt the same as you on that question. There were a few that I was like "well that really depends on many circumstances, I need more information to provide an honest answer"
Anyway my results were very close to yours - 29% German 73% autistic. I also should probably get tested but there's only two qualified psychiatrists in my province to do true assessments and they only take referrals and are booked out like 9 months in advance :/
I use my level of frustration as a way to determine what a reasonable option to answer is.
I'm tired of trying to guess and interpret vague questions about things I really don't care about anyway. So when it doesn't matter (like here, and in most instances) I just pick the option that irritates me the most; a bit like a second gut when the first gut doesn't get a feeling!
Exactly 36% each. "Neither" and nothing about the other 28%. Am I the ubermensch?
Fun! I was "neither," which the quiz said was rare based on those who complete it.
But I took it "as" my son, guessing his answers and got "both," with Ludwig Wittgenstein as the example.
My son then took it at got "autistic but not German," meaning that my personal image of his phenomenology is far too German (and not autistic enough, based on the numbers).
I'll have to go back through the items with him. Now, to get his mom to answer. :)
42% German, 49% autistic. I was diagnosed with autism 3 months ago. I'm also Brazilian, which I'm sure pretty is the exact opposite of Germany.
I think I would adapt well to Germany as well as nordic countries. According to my sister who lives in Sweden I am basically Swedish.
Looks like I'm German. At more than 50% German, I'm the second most German person here at time of writing, even though I'm not actually German. But I'll take it! I do like Kant!
(Also 30% Autistic.)
49% autistic, 27% German. As someone who was actually diagnosed with Aspergers at a young age, I'm surprised it wasn't higher.