How literal are you?

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I am very literal. I just read one of my responses and I answered as literally as you could possibly answer. LOL I am laughing so hard. I just realized what the question was really asking (i think).

Question: Why are you here?

Me: I have autism

What I think the question meant was "what do you want from this site"....and my new answer is - to learn and connect with people like myself. LOL

Are you that literal as well?

"Just the facts, ma'am." -Dragnet

TBH, it varies a lot. Probably the most objective way of knowing how I'm doing is to see how quickly I come back with an appropriate response to a figurative response and the degree to which it's a reasonable one.

Just last week, I got scolded for walking through some wet paint that had a "slippery when wet" sign next to it. It didn't even occur to me that it might mean wet paint rather than a slip hazard.

When it comes to fiction, which is one of my special interests, I'm usually pretty good at seeing when something is meant as a metaphor or a joke, etc.

However, I think there have been some cases in real life when I've taken things more literally than another person wanted.

For example, my former manager would frequently stop me right after my lunch break and ask me how my department was looking. Taking the question at face value, I would answer honestly: I didn't know, as I'd just been on lunch and the customers could have completely trashed the department within that hour and probably did. (Nobody covered my lunch). This was not what she wanted to hear. She would get very annoyed. Eventually, she plotted to get me out of the department. Though maybe this is an example of me being too honest instead of taking the question too literally. Or of her having an unrealistic idea of how our store operates.

I think I'm pretty good at not taking things too literally, but sometimes I get blindsided unexpectedly so maybe I'm not as good at it as I think...

I am pretty literal but not enough to really cause that many issues with communication like I used to.
I ran into this trouble in my 20s when dating. I used to take certain things they said literally. Like them saying "I'm just looking for fun" meant they like having fun, and I'd wonder what sort of fun hobbies they had. Turns out that's code for just wanting to hook up. Same with them saying they like cuddles. I thought that meant they actually liked hugging/cuddling, but it's another code for wanting to hookup.

Dating and figuring out these codes was truly a nightmare in my 20s.

I guess by literal you mean conforming to the simplest, most non-figurative most obvious meaning of words?

If so, it depends on the words that are presented to me. I think my innate tendency is to prefer literal, concrete language that doesn't expect me to infer anything from the context, understand any metaphors, or make it harder than necessary for me to understand the communication as it was intended to be understood. But I've had decades of experience in dealing with non-literal stuff, and so it's not surprising that I can take a lot of it in my stride these days, and can even enjoy abstract poetry.

But I can get annoyed if words mislead me or delay me in understanding something, especially if it's important to me that I do understand it, and as I'm quite well-educated in scientific thinking and "good" English, I'm often dismayed at the glibness and imprecision of a lot of communication I receive. Conversely, I can feel a bit like (I guess) a neurotypical might feel if I'm presented with something that labours the point and overexplains it in an attempt at unnecessary clarity - i.e. I can feel impatient and I can feel that my intelligence is being insulted.

So I suppose I'm a bit like the guy who scowls at you for mumbling and then when you raise your voice he scowls again and tells you there's no need to shout, though I rarely express my hostile sentiments, as I know they're not entirely reasonable, and that when communication goes wrong, both the speaker and the listener have failed.

I don't know how to precisely say how literal I am. I'm closer to literal than non-literal. I'd hate to live among people who couldn't or wouldn't say anything literal, but my life would be less rich if they couldn't say anything other than literal. When I'm doing the talking, I'm usually literal but I kind of dislike myself for being too extreme in that way, and it can be very refreshing to me when I come out with something artistic, glib, or otherwise non-literal, even if it doesn't seem quite correct.

Firstly ..very literal ....having said that , I goto the most pragmatic literal interpetation . Then quickly my mind goes into
wandering language mode ..How can what has been said.. be deconstructed into another meaning ?. And you would not think this would help,? but i do it regularily ,my mind wants to have fun with language . So as my brain does this , it comes up quickly with optional meanings . Usually one of those could be what the person wants me to hear...This works for me mostly in non stress situations best. Or even low stress situations . But sometimes twisting words can be fun ?
And if that person that is trying to get something across to you . You repeat it back to them the way your mind thinks of it . Sometimes it wil, bring a smile, .. Other times , it might show the speaker that their phraseology might be easily " Misunderstood" the way they said it . ( no guarantee the speaker ,will not, get frustrated about their lack of clarity for the person they are speaking too.) . But not everbody talks( writes) the same way.

I take things very literally and it gets me into trouble sometimes.

CockneyRebel - me, too.

I had this issue as a child, not as an adult. I had many interpersonal traits of the autism spectrum as a child, but not as an adult. As a small child specifically, not in my later childhood and teenage years. I took things too literally, because I was bad at reading feelings and didn't understand that metaphors were metaphors. If someone said they feel like they can fly, I would understand it literally and think they have strange beliefs, not that they feel enthusiastic, euphoric. That was a stone off my heart. I feel butterflies in my stomach. That kind of thing.

Worse than "literal".
My interpretation of words is somewhat distorted and at times unnatural.

Somewhere in my head, my language processing is just screwed and do not even seem to improve with practice.

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