My daughter decided to conduct an experiment last night during our meal together. She has a theory that her older brother is completely lacking in “emotional intelligence”. This we agreed was quite commonly a female trait, but her younger brother has it in bucket loads. Teenage son is immensely clever, but the sort of clever that is inside his head, rather than outside in the real world and doesn’t seem to have a clue about non-verbal communication. We agreed that he wasn’t very good at recognising facial expressions. He disagreed.
“OK”, she said. “I’m going to make a face and you have to guess what I’m thinking about to see if you can read emotion”.
She looked down towards the table and put on her best “sad and wistful” face possible. It was good.
“Carrots” he said looking pretty pleased with himself.
“CARROTS!!! We chirped in unison.
“Well, you were looking down at the bowl of carrots so I assumed that must be what you were thinking about” he said.
That just about says it all really.
karen
May 29, 2009This really made me smile! We often have similar discussions and happenings in our family: 3 men aged 18, 21, 49 – and me!
Last post made me cry though.. thanks for the link to Siren Voices, very moving..
Littlemummy
May 29, 2009I wonder what he’d make of my scary face?
Expat mum
May 29, 2009I think it’s called “thinking outside the box” and it’s what really successful business people are able to do. That boy will go far!
Nicola
May 29, 2009Hilarious post. Is this what I am going to be subject to 10 years from now, i wonder?
family affairs
May 29, 2009LM – he wouldn’t even notice your scary face – WHICH IS A REAL WORRY – how will he ever succeed in a relationship if he can’t pick up your “if looks could kill” face….
That’s generous EM – I think it’s called being totally immune to other people’s feelings….or maybe that IS what makes you good in business – that’s where I went wrong.
Karen – all those males – yes I can imagine. I know. Very moving that Siren Voices isn’t it?
Yes Nicola – definitely
DD
May 29, 2009I saw a really interesting programme about teenagers a few years back with Professor Winston (he of the memorable moustache) saying that teenagers were worse at recognising emotion in faces than even really small toddlers – because the teenage brain is so busy building adult synapses. His theory was that they switch back to emotional intelligence when their brains have developed ..fingers crossed!
Chimera
May 29, 2009Brilliant!! Short and hysterically sweet!
gawd..blokes!
'm'
May 29, 2009On the other hand he might have been totally aware of what was going on and simply said that to stump you all. Sounds to me he knows exactly what he’s doing – and that is winding the rest of you up!
Azam Mansha
June 16, 2009Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand your own emotions and those of people around you. Emotional intelligence is sometimes referred to as emotional quotient or emotional literacy. Individuals with emotion intelligence are able to relate to others with compassion and empathy, have well-developed social skills and use this emotional awareness to direct their actions and behaviour.