Introvert. Extrovert. Type A. Type 3. A Samantha. These days, it seems, there is an ever-expanding list of terms and frameworks for describing our personalities. But what we see in ourselves, and what other people see in us, are often not the same.
So when LaDel, a listener to Explain It to Me — Vox’s weekly call-in podcast — asked a question about “introverts,” our curiosity was piqued. “I was seeing people I know who I wouldn’t consider to be introverts proclaiming that they were,” they said. “I’m like, ‘Wow, you’re out every weekend, swinging from chandeliers. You’re probably not an introvert.’ But I’m not so arrogant that I feel like I can tell anyone what their temperament is.”
But, is LaDel right that more people are describing themselves as introverts? According to personality researcher and University of Kentucky psychology professor Shannon Sauer-Zavala, the answer is: kind of! And the pandemic is to blame. “I think like any skill, when we are out of practice, we get rusty. People might be confusing discomfort with being introverted,” she said.
It’s also a shift in how we think about disposition more generally. “I do think that here in the last decade or so, there’s been more recognition of introverts as having qualities that are really desirable,” Sauer-Zavala told Vox. “They tend to be more thoughtful, more measured, better listeners.There’s been kind of this renaissance for introverts, and now people are like, ‘Oh, it’s okay to identify as an introvert. I’m a proud introvert.’ And I think that’s what we’re seeing.”
What are some other ways we should be thinking about our personalities? Sauer-Zavala dives deeper on the latest episode of Explain It to Me. Below is an excerpt of our conversation, edited for length and clarity.
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Do we get more introverted as we age?
This is actually a really complicated question to answer.
Extroversion versus introversion can be divided up into subfacets. One thing that does tend to change or increase on average as people age is what’s called social dominance. This is a facet of extroversion that is the tendency to be assertive and confident.
On the flip side, social vitality tends to decrease, and this is enthusiasm and energy for social situations.
I think we have this urge to label ourselves as either introverts or extroverts. Is that how you and your colleagues think about it?
The way we measure personality is really different from how people are talking about their types at a dinner party.
It’s really different from what you would think personality is if you took a common personality test on the internet or through your HR office.
I always say that academic personality science needs a PR person because we’re not really good at spreading the word on what personality actually is.
So, then what is personality?
I always like to answer this by talking about what personality is not first.
People are precious about their personality. It is their essence, their sense of humor, their tastes, their values. But, that’s actually not how academic psychologists define personality.
We define personality as your characteristic or habitual way of acting and thinking. When you think about that, it’s mental habits and behavioral habits, and those are things that we change all the time.
I’m curious how you measure personality from that scientific standpoint.
Most of the commercial personality tests that people have heard of are very category based. They put you into a type, and that’s that. What we use describes personality in a much more nuanced way. It’s the big five or the five factor model of personality. These are five overarching traits.
The first one is openness, and this is the degree to which you are interested in new ideas and aesthetics, philosophy, art versus folks that are more traditional.
Then, you have conscientiousness, which is on a continuum with disinhibition. And essentially conscientiousness is how striving you are, how organized, how reliable. And disinhibition is more like, “I kind of act before I think it through.”
The next is extroversion versus introversion, and that’s the tendency to be energetic and excitable.
Then, there’s agreeableness versus antagonism. Agreeableness is how oriented you are towards other people, how empathic, how caring, how well you get along with others.
And then, the last one is neuroticism, which is on a continuum with emotional stability. And neuroticism is your tendency to experience strong negative emotions. Do you tend to get more upset by stressors in the environment? Do you take longer to calm back down? That sort of thing.
I like to think about the big five as an audio switchboard with all the little dials that you can push up and down.
Why do you think we’re so interested in knowing our personality types? Why do we want to put ourselves in buckets so badly?
I mean, it’s fun, right? But, knowing where you are on those different traits provides you with a lot more nuanced information.
I develop interventions, and for the past 10 years have been developing interventions to nudge personality traits. People think that personality is set in stone — you’re born with it and you should just take the test, put yourself in the box, and then you should choose partners and careers based on whatever type you are — when, really, it should be the opposite.
You should identify what’s important to you, what you value, what important goals you have, and then figure out what are the traits that will help get you there and intentionally cultivate them.
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