As mentioned in Heteronyms, I often have the wrong meaning for emotional words. These definitions are largely coming from context, from reading. I map them to my own experience based on:

• similar trigger conditions
• similar inputs
• similar outputs

but they are not the same word at all because of my lack of Social Salience.

Hate is a good example of high semantic divergence. For me it means intense dislike and it applies to people who do “bad” things and opinions about foods I don’t like. For NT people it is more a feeling that another person is evil.

When I use words incorrectly, sometimes it works out OK. The NT listener probably doesn’t understand the same idea I am trying to convey, but if it is close enough or not important, it works.

An example of that might be “jerk”. I view a jerk as somebody who is insensitive, in particularly saying things blindly without realizing how they affect the people around them. I am OK being labeled a jerk – in my eyes it is probably true. Of course I don’t want to be a jerk, but I can’t always help it. For an NT listener a jerk is much more willful: they disregard the feelings of other in order to show dominance or malice. I am accidentally picking up intent, which I do not have.

There is also high risk: NT people may assume I have feelings that I don’t have. They may be confused when my actions don’t match my words. They may not even know to question me – I seem like I know what I am talking about, who asks another person what they mean by “hate”?

I don’t know how much trouble this causes me because I can’t easily perceive when it happens. A close friend or my wife might tell me I Said The Wrong Thing but unless I know to look it up, I probably don’t pick up the correct semantics of these emotion words. All of these Emotions that I am writing about are in consultation with LLMs and Wikipedia. I just didn’t know.

I am effectively speaking a different language without realizing it.

My saving grace is that I am very low or no Ego – I get along with almost everybody. Once people know me and understand how I behave, it works out.

Table

Emotion	NT Experience	My Experience
Anger	“This is unfair; a boundary has been crossed; I must fight.”	“This is a violation of Ethics/Logic; the system is experiencing data corruption.”
Arrogance	“I am above others; their standards do not apply to me.”	“Status-blind factual output; bluntness perceived as a claim to dominance.”
Care	“I invest in you (proactive/preventative support).”	“Resource allocation to ensure Black Box stability; ‘do no harm’ ethical protocol.”
Comforting	“I will co-regulate your distress via mirroring and presence.”	“Mechanical stabilization of a biological organism or technical troubleshooting.”
Compassion	“I feel moved by you (reactive/reparative response to suffering).”	“Functional Altruism; ad-hoc decision to resolve identified suboptimal states.”
Disgust	“This is toxic; it will contaminate me; I must expel it.”	“High-magnitude logical flag for intentional malice or irreparable axiom violation.”
Dopamine	Reward/Drive for social bonding, status, and survival tasks.	Reward for task completion, logical closure, and delivery of utility.
Ego	Self-identity balancing desires and status; involves defensiveness.	Identity as a product of consistent logic; status-blindness; zero-lag correction.
Embarrassment	“I have made a social slip; I am at risk of social exclusion.”	“Biological Threat Response (BTR) to sudden scrutiny or rule-violation detection.”
Empathy	“I feel with you (Affective mirroring and perspective taking).”	“Narrative Affective Resonance; logical simulation of loss within own system.”
Envy	“You have what I deserve; your gain is my loss.”	“Identification of functional inefficiency; desire for a high-utility tool or state.”
Fear	“I am in danger; I am unprepared; I must escape.”	“Functional Hazard Analysis; biological stress regarding resource/function loss.”
Guilt	“I have hurt the group; I am at risk of exclusion.”	“Acknowledgement of rule violation; protocol to restore the original system state.”
Hate	“You are a threat to my world; you should not exist.”	“High-intensity dislike; label for ‘bad’ actors; wish for cessation of unethical output.”
Loneliness	“I am disconnected; I am hungry for belonging.”	“Boredom due to low environmental complexity; a requirement for noise injection.”
Love	“Your well-being is as important as my own; shared ‘we’ identity.”	“Loyalty and resource-sharing with a high-familiarity system; stability provision.”
Pride	“I am better than others; others see me as valuable.”	“Validation that output meets specifications; logical closure of a complex puzzle.”
Regret	“I knew better; I wish I could choose differently.”	“Recognition of an inefficient outcome or Integrity Distress (standard failure).”
Sadness	“I have lost something precious; I need time to heal.”	“High-magnitude deletion event; permanent loss of unique value/data.”
Shame	“I am fundamentally flawed; I must hide myself.”	“Zero-signal; replaced by factual audit and decision to address or ignore data.”
Sympathy	“I feel for you (pity/intellectual recognition of pain).”	“Labeling an observed state of distress; bias toward noninterference or fixing.”