The Turing Test for Humans

One of the characteristics that makes us human, is our high level of emotional ability . Beyond our cognitive ability to think logically, we are emotional creatures. We cry while reading sad novels, laugh at a joke and erupt in anger at those who annoy us. Emotion depends on a state of physical arousal, a pleasant or unpleasant sensation. Emotional intelligence is our ability to understand and control our emotional inner world and our ability to influence the emotional world of others. We know that in a lot of aspects emotional intelligence is more important than its cognitive counterpart; it can predict success in many areas of life.  One way to demonstrate the importance of emotional intelligence is through the delayed gratification process.

The psychologist,  Walter Mischel conducted a study on this subject, that later became known as “The Marshmallow Experiment”. Mischel tested the ability of 4 year old children to delay gratification after they were each given a single marshmallow. The children’s task was simple:

they were told that the tester had to take an urgent call elsewhere and would return within 15- 20 minutes. If the child was able to resist the temptation and not eat the marshmallow,  another would be given to him or her, when the tester returned.  Mischel was actually testing the children’s control over their emotions, through their ability to delay gratification. The children used a variety of techniques to deal with the task: some closed their eyes, others crossed their arms defiantly, while others chose  more extreme solutions.   Mischel followed up on the children now teenagers, 12 years after the initial experiment. He found  those children who had succeeded in waiting  for the tester were more sociable and better at establishing life goals and accomplishing them. Those who “didn’t wait for the tester" were less sociable, more impulsive and had lower self-esteem. It turns out, that emotional intelligence in general and delaying gratification in particular can predict success in life.

One of the main channels responsible for developing emotional intelligence is interpersonal communication. When a mother reacts to her baby’s “smile”, it starts off an  emotional dialogue that slowly builds up to create a repertoire of emotions. Therefore, the language of emotion language is our first language. We know that humans who were raised in an emotionally stunted environment have difficulty in reading people’s emotions and expressing their own emotions effectively, just like people who struggle to express themselves  in a language in which they have  a limited vocabulary.

We live in a world were social interaction exists mainly on the internet and social media. These settings are characterized by poor language, a limited emotional repertoire and an absence of body language.  For many children in the internet age the concept of friendship is a quantitative one, akin to collecting stamps. The importance of quality as opposed to quantity when seeking friendship is a lost concept for many of  today’s youth, who collect friends on social media by using buttons such “Like” and “Share” to follow their uploads .  This causes many children to constantly struggle with their self-esteem, because  their self-image is wholly dependent on the  the approval of their peer group In effort to cope with the pressure, the children develop adult marketing and image management skills as evidenced from their online posts.

Instead of meaningful conversations with close friends where you can open up and just be yourself, the online world requires you to provide excitements and thrills at all the times. This reality creates distance from our inner emotional world. Studies show that over the years there has been a regression in our empathic capacity; we display less interest in others, are less involved in social and communal activities, and are more narcissistic. If we were to observe the youth’s behavior during a social and interpersonal interaction we are likely to see less mental presence, infrequent eye contact and brief, irritated glances at a Smartphone. Even in a public space, there is a feeling that they have confined  themselves within  their own sealed bubble in which they interact on an individual or group level, absorb information or listen to music,  or do them all at once, without reference to the  outside world. We really don’t need to look any further then the checkout line in the supermarket. There seem to be more and more people who treat the cashier as part of the cash- register ’s machinery. Some don’t even bother to pull themselves away from their Smartphone and multitasking; they continue to live their private life while simultaneously paying the cashier-machine without a single word of human conversation. In short, not a great example of emotional intelligence.

True, this doesn’t apply to everyone. There are those who maintain a rich social life by interacting with others face to face, creating genuine and high quality friendships that will prove successful when put to the test. These kids use a real and internal scale to evaluate their self-worth and are not “addicted” to the applause of online Facebook groups. They use Facebook in order to touch base with their broader circle of friends and to connect with their more intimate friends. Yes, there are still kids who are sensitive to others and know how to be present not only physically but also mentally. They use Smartphones wisely and effectively and live in public spaces with a high sensitivity to the people around them. However, it would be wrong to say that they represent all of society. It seems we have a whole range of problematic behaviors that reflect a decline in our emotional intelligence. Meanwhile, our advanced digital technology has helped make incredible strides with the  development of emotional abilities for robots. To date, we already have robots who can read facial expressions, translate them into emotions and act on them. For instance, there is a robot who can   recognize a sorrowful facial expressions and respond with an emphatic interaction that strives to improve the person’s emotional state. In addition, there are further developments of highly advanced robots that are capable of expressing a range of emotions. These robots are able to improve their functionality by analyzing their failures and drawing conclusions.

In 2014, an advanced computer program passed the Turing Test at the University of Reading.  This is a test  designed specifically  to detect  whether the test is being taken by a computer or a human. The program, which identified itself as a 13 year old child from Ukraine, managed to deceive the Turning Test with its answers and was not recognized as a robot.  Judging by the amazing progress in the field, it seems that we are looking at a future where increasingly robots will succeed in passing the test. When  we evaluate the robots’ emotional progress versus the humans’ emotional regression, there is a real fear that in the future more humans will fail the Turing Test, while more robots will pass it successfully.  

See more on this issue in my new book, Internet Psychology: The Basics.