Taking the self-centeredness test

We are all a bit self-centered at times. Yes, even our saintly beloved mothers and grandmothers.

However, there are “those people” (whom we all know) who are self-centered as a way of life. Such a person can be defined as someone who is only concerned with their own wants and needs, instead of thinking about other people.

But how can we accurately “measure” self-centeredness in people (and most of all - if we have the courage to do so - within ourselves)?

Well, over the years I have come up with an admittedly informal (but at least a teensy bit scientific) test to determine one’s own level of self-centeredness.

It’s actually a very simple test; you just watch yourself while driving a car.

Yes, watch the road while you’re at it, too (as I very much want you to make it alive to the next Sunday edition of this column), but watch your actions, your thoughts, and your psychological/emotional intentions as you drive.

How often do you get in the left lane when you don’t truly need to do so?

Take, for instance, my own dear mother. When she pulled out of the Sunnybrook subdivision in Bristol, with the intentions of making a future left turn on State Street (some five miles ahead on her journey), she would immediately seek the left lane. And stay there. The. Entire. Time. Until. She. Turned.

Mom was (otherwise) a deeply thoughtful and considerate person. But she could become immensely self-absorbed in this particular facet of her life. Her self-centeredness score (which in most aspects, would read very low) would spike quite highly when answering this question honestly.

As a humorous aside, Mom once proudly told Dad that she had never had a wreck her entire life. And she spoke the truth.

Dad replied, “But God only knows how many wrecks you caused over the years by just pokin’ along in that left lane.”

I find there are few things on the road which exasperate me more than finding someone “just pokin’ along” in the left lane.

Some people, of course (and I dare say most people) do the “left lane drive” for a power trip. They get high on the “control” they are exerting on other drivers, making vehicles either “go around” or “slow down”, as the case may be.

If you are one of these left lane drivers, my friends, you might want to check your ego.

As for dear little old ladies driving in the left lane - I see far, far more so-called masculine men in pick-up trucks driving along and hogging the left lane than I do ladies of any age. Such driving tells me a lot about where such men rate on the self-centered scale. Some would knock the scale off the charts.

Then there are those who people who absolutely refuse to “properly pull up” when waiting in a drive-thru line. Again, this behavior is more than likely done to feed an ego power trip (the passive-aggressive control freaks of the world are sure to score high on this part of the test).

Just this week I sat in my car behind a man who consistently kept a space of seven or eight feet between his vehicle and the next – all the way through the drive-thru line. If asked, he may try to plead the point that he didn’t want his vehicle bumped from someone in front of him. But even if that is true, his immense overreaction resulted in self-centered overkill on the scale.  

At first glance, the following vehicle driver behavior can appear to be at least somewhat unselfish (as opposed to being strictly self-centered) - and that would be “slowing down or stopping to let another driver out in front of you”.

Maybe. Sometimes. It all depends. I have certainly done so, myself, on occasion. Yet I certainly don’t allow more than one car to pull out in front of me at a time, if I do. I try very hard to think of those in the line behind me, as well.