Should there be an empathy requirement for the Internet?
With its hives of trolls and spammers, the Internet lacks a little, shall we say, empathy. But a new app will help us find out once and for all just how good we are at putting ourselves in other people’s shoes.
MEIT (mobile emotional intelligence test) is an app that performs an emotional intelligence test, evaluating how good we are at perceiving how others are feeling. Open the app, and it’ll ask you to rate the emotions expressed by a series of human faces in categories like anger, happiness, fear, and disgust. Then, place emotions on a grid that graphs feelings for their “pleasure” and “activation.” Finally, assign the correct emotional label to different faces.
Other tests include “understanding” and “managing,” which are quizzes on how best to handle emotional situations. If you end up with over 90 points, then congratulations! You are an empathetic human being. Unfortunately, the average score in the U.S. right now is 89. (This writer squeaked by with a 95.)
MEIT could fix the web as we know it. Just imagine having to take an emotional intelligence test before posting on Reddit or writing a YouTube comment. Captchas replaced with distraught faces. The world would be a better place!
(h/t Science Daily)