The Gift of Introversion

Interestingly, this view of human nature is echoed in ancient
Greece. The physicians Hippocrates and Galen famously
proposed that our temperaments — and destinies — were a
function of bodily fluids. Extra blood made people sanguine
(calmly extroverted), yellow bile made them choleric
(impulsively extroverted), phlegm made them phlegmatic
(calmly introverted), and black bile made them melancholic
(anxiously introverted).
But if shyness and introversion
are so different, why do we
often link them, especially in
the popular media?
The most important answer is that there’s a shared bias in our
society against both traits. The mental state of a shy extrovert
sitting quietly in a business meeting may be very different
from that of a calm introvert — the shy person is afraid to
speak up, while the introvert is simply overstimulated —
but to the outside world, the two appear to be the same, and
neither type is welcome. Studies show that we rank fast and
frequent talkers as more competent, likable, and even smarter
than slow ones.
THE POWER OF INTROVERTS | 8