Please, let me be neutral. I’m an easy going guy. There are a lot of things where I can honestly see the pros and cons of both sides of the argument, and I choose to remain neutral. I’ve been met with disdain, anger and arguments because of this in the past. I’ve also been accused of apathy. If only I cared more, I would have a position to take, is what they say.
I remember when I was going through couple’s counceling, there was a little survey I had to take that consisted of agree/disagree/strongly disagree/strongly agree type responses. There was no neutral choice, and on some of the questions, I was 100% neutral. I didn’t lean either way because I could see both sides of the coin. I was told that I HAD to answer all the questions, couldn’t leave anything blank, and neutrality wasn’t an option. This bothered me then, and it bothers me even to this day! I used to get into heated arguments with one of my ex-boyfriends because he would get so upset that I was neutral on a given issue. He would have been happier if I was actually against what he believed rather than just neutral.
So, does neutrality bother you? Do you see it as a sign of apathy? Does it make a person seem unintelligent, like they haven’t thought through an issue well enough to take a position? Do surveys and tests that don’t have a neutral option bother you?
I wouldn’t call it neutrality. I would call it “I just don’t care” Some things really grab me and I’m either on this side or that side. Other things I just don’t give a woop about. A LOT of things I just don’t give a woop about. It drives some of my friends crazy.
I’m neutral on a lot of issues. Mostly because I’m ill-informed to take a stance one way or the other.
I wish people commenting on newspaper articles were as neutral as I am; who knew the general public was so informed about what kind of next-generation fighter jet the Canadian Royal Air Force should procure?
i’m neutral on lots of issues where i don’t know enough facts to develop an opinion. or i might have an opinion that i would qualify based on the facts i knew of.
it is a good thing to not come to conclusions without sufficient facts and time for good analysis.
I HATE the tests that don’t have some sort of “neutral” or “depends” option.
In my case, it isn’t so much that I don’t care, but rather there’s an awful lot of things that are inherently dependent on the exact circumstances.
In my somewhat limited experience, people who have a high IQ are more likely to be able to see both sides of an issue. Of course, some things have more than two sides–there’s an old saying something like “There are three sides to every story–your side, his side, and the truth.”
For a lot of questions–for example, the general type of “Mr. X says Y to you. How do you respond?” my answer is very likely going to be “It depends.” What tone of voice does Mr. X use? Am I busy doing something when he asks me? If so, what is it, and how important is it? Etc., etc.
There are very few assessment and personality tests that are designed even halfway well. The rest are absolutely worthless.
It doesnt actually matter on tests, because if the person really doesnt have any strong patterns and are entirely context related, the choices will end up being fairly randomly distributed.
That generally doesnt happen, ie the person thinks they are more ‘neutral’ than they actually seem to be. In these cases, the neutrality is more a philosophical approach than an accurate description of their overall worldview. Most, if not all of us do seem to have biasses that impact on our decisions in measurable ways, rather than entirely basing our judgments on the context of the situation.
If that ever happens again, conspicuously pull out a coin and flip it, and say “Okay, I’m [for/against] that” depending on whether it comes up heads or tails.
If you’re neutral about everything, maybe. On the other hand, if you’re not neutral about anything, I’m not going to value your opinions much, because I’ll suspect you reached them through emotion, jumping to conclusions, going along with the crowd, or some similarly worthless method.
If you’re neutral about everything or close to it, I’m going to think you’re incurious, uninformed and unwilling to learn, and have less respect for you.
If you have a strong opinion about every single topic under the sun, I’m going to think you’re an overconfident idiot and have less respect for you.
