The Gift of Introversion

their "first nature", but can strategically advance projects that are important to them.
Together, this presents an optimistic view of what extraversion is. Rather than being
fixed and stable, individuals vary in their extraverted behaviors across different
moments, and can choose to act extraverted to advance important personal projects or
even increase their happiness, as mentioned above.
Implications
Acknowledging that introversion and extraversion are normal variants of behavior can
help in self-acceptance and understanding of others. For example, an extravert can
accept his/her introverted partner's need for space, while an introvert can acknowledge
his/her extraverted partner's need for social interaction.
Researchers have found a correlation between extraversion and self-reported
happiness. That is, more extraverted people tend to report higher levels of happiness
than introverts. Other research has shown that being instructed to act in an extraverted
manner leads to increases in positive affect, even for people who are trait-level
introverts.
This does not mean that introverts are unhappy. Extraverts simply report experiencing
more positive emotions, whereas introverts tend to be closer to neutral. This may be
because extraversion is socially preferable in contemporary Western culture and thus
introverts feel less desirable. In addition to the research on happiness, other studies
have found that extraverts tend to report higher levels of self-esteem than
introverts. Others suggest that such results reflect socio-cultural bias in the survey
itself. Dr. David Meyers has claimed that happiness is a matter of possessing three
traits: self-esteem, optimism, and extraversion. Meyers bases his conclusions on
studies that report extraverts to be happier; these findings have been questioned in light
of the fact that the "happiness" prompts given to the studies' subjects, such as "I like to
be with others" and "I'm fun to be with," only measure happiness among
extraverts. Also, according to Carl Jung, introverts acknowledge more readily their
psychological needs and problems, whereas extraverts tend to be oblivious to them
because they focus more on the outer world.
Although extraversion is perceived as socially desirable in Western culture, it is not
always an advantage. For example, extraverted youths are more likely to engage in
antisocial or delinquent behavior. In line with this, emerging evidence suggest that the
trait of extraversion may also be related to that of psychopathy. Conversely, while
introversion is perceived as less socially desirable, it is strongly associated with positive
traits such as intelligence and "giftedness." For many years, researchers have found
that introverts tend to be more successful in academic environments, which extraverts
may find boring.
Research shows that behavioral immune system, the psychological processes that infer
infection risk from perceptual cues and respond to these perceptual cues through the
activation of aversive emotions, may influence gregariousness. Although extraversion is
Page 84 of 160