Simon Baron-Cohen, director of the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge and author of the recently published book, “The Essential Difference,” has develped two interactive online tests for empathy and systemizing personalities.

Baron-Cohen’s theory is that the female brain is predominantly hard-wired for empathy, and that the male brain is predominantly hard-wired for understanding and building systems. He calls it the empathising-systemising (E-S) theory.

Empathising is the drive to identify another person’s emotions and thoughts, and to respond to these with an appropriate emotion. The empathiser intuitively figures out how people are feeling, and how to treat people with care and sensitivity.

Systemising is the drive to analyse and explore a system, to extract underlying rules that govern the behaviour of a system; and the drive to construct systems.

To take the Interactive Empathy Quotient Test, click here.

To take the Interactive Systemizing Quotient Test, click here.

NOTE: These tests are a little long, at 60 questions each, but are easy to answer.

Do both the SQ and EQ questionnaires then click on the link at the end for “your brain type”. This will tell you whether you have a male brain, a female brain or if you’re perfectly balanced (something we all dream of!).