As I wrote over at the BusinessWeek site on toxic bosses, the ARSE or Asshole Rating Self-Exam continues to be used -- this little self-test was taken from Chapter 4 of The No Asshole Rule. Guy Kawasaki put it on his blog, and came-up with that great name. I still have people introduce themselves with their number on the test, like "Hi, my name is Joe, and I am a 3." (A"0" would be someone who reports not a single asshole behavior; a "24" reports being an asshole in 24 different ways, like "You secretely enjoy watching other people suffer and squirm."). I just got an update from Emily at Electric Pulp and she reports that we are closing in on 160,000 completions (158, 411). And the average person "scores" a 6.48, which I would call a "borderline certified asshole." So, the self-examation continues.
P.S. Emily also gave me an update for the ACHE, the Asshole Client from Hell Exam (you can read aboout the orgin of it here). It has been completed by 12,485 people who rate their nasty clients, with an average score of 14.3. As this is a list of only 20 nasty client behaviors, this means the average respondent finds that his or her client is a certified asshole.
Actually, I'd guess the issue is selection bias more than anything else. People who deal with truly hellish clients are more likely to take the exam than those who have kinder clients.
The same bias might be evident the other way on the ARSE. Those who are the greatest assholes are generally oblivious to their assholedom, so would see no need to take the test.
Posted by: John Jenkins | June 30, 2008 at 01:47 PM
So - on the whole (so to speak) - we see ourselves as mildly ass-holish, but, oh boy, those clients are real lu-lu's! How does that align with belief #6 - "you get what you expect from people"? I'm feeling a touch of irony here.
Posted by: Don | June 30, 2008 at 03:57 AM
Out of curiosity, what's the median ARSE score?
Posted by: John Jenkins | June 29, 2008 at 01:15 PM