If You Suck At Reading Others’ Emotions, Your Life Will Suck

http://mybrownbaby.com/2013/11/if-you-suck-at-reading-others-emotions-your-life-will-suck/

by Nick Chiles — Nov 13, 2013

How good are you at reading other people’s emotions?

I thought I was pretty good at it—though my wife might be of a different mind on this—but I just found out I’m about average.

The New York Times has a fascinating test on its website that throws pictures at you of eyes, lots of eyes, and asks you to guess the mood of the person at the time the picture was taken.

There’s no overestimating how important a skill this is for each of us. How often do we use the skill in our relationships or our jobs when trying to decide whether to approach someone—a spouse/colleague/boss/child—with a difficult or important request? Everyday we call on these empathy skills in one way or another—and those of us who are less skilled in this area probably have less successful love relationships and are less successful on the job.

I know it’s a skill that children are notoriously bad at developing. My 11-year-old consistently astounds me with her cluelessness at recognizing the moods of the other people in the house when she launches into some ridiculous request or bit of drama. In fact, I think our dog Teddy is a more skilled reader of our moods, particularly those of my wife Denene, than is my little one.

I just pray that one day my daughter wakes up and realizes that the skill was sitting there all along, unused.

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