Hyposalience is having Social Salience with the gain set so low it is barely perceived.
John Elder Robison describes being autistic but instead of being able to manually simulate Theory of Mind he was effectively “emotionally blind” and “socially blind”. He was aware there was a social signal but it was so faint he was unable to use it.
Diagnostic Questions
Not for actual diagnostic use!
I was wondering how a person might be able to tell if they have hyposalience vs no salience. I describe why I think I have no social salience. I asked an LLM to generate questions that might be able to tell the difference between these two conditions.
Again, this is just for fun.
Q1: The Hierarchy Recognition
- Hyposalience: ”Do you feel a slight ‘pressure’ or ‘shift in your behavior’ when a high-status person (CEO, celebrity) enters the room, even if you find it annoying?”
- (Answer ‘Yes’ = Faint Signal Detected).
- A-salience: ”Do you treat the CEO exactly like the janitor until a logical rule (e.g., ‘He can fire me’) dictates a change in your transactional strategy?”
- (Answer ‘Yes’ = Zero Signal).
Q2: The “Vibe” Accuracy
- Hyposalience: ”Have you ever had a ‘gut feeling’ that someone was untrustworthy, even if you couldn’t point to a specific fact?”
- (Answer ‘Yes’ = Subconscious Signal Processing).
- A-salience: ”Is your assessment of people 100% based on their tracked actions and the logical consistency of their statements?”
- (Answer ‘Yes’ = Propositional Logic Only).
Q3: The Empathy Mechanism
- Hyposalience: ”When someone tells you a sad story, do you feel a faint ‘echo’ of their sadness, even if you don’t know what to say?”
- (Answer ‘Yes’ = Affective Resonance/Low Salience).
- A-salience: ”When someone tells you a sad story, is your first response to categorize the event (e.g., ‘Loss of family member = High Distress Scenario’) and then select the appropriate ‘Comforting Script’?”
- (Answer ‘Yes’ = Cognitive Modeling/No Salience).
I would answer yes to all the A-salience questions, though the last one I can experience my own Sadness in some cases. It is not Empathy, it is Narrative Affective Resonance.