Over the years the society has awarded extroversion. The ideal of success is linked to an open world, sociable and empathetic person who is uneasy in social situations. So introverts may feel neglected or disadvantaged. In fact, many struggle to be more extroverted and at some point have felt ridiculed or even have been listed as "misfits".
However, extroversion and introversion are but different ways of dealing with the world and social relations. Now a study at Dartmouth College reveals that introverts have a perception of the social world much more accurate and objective of possessing extroverts.
The Paradox of Friendship and extroversion bias
The current study analyzed the interaction of two key factors in a group of 284 master's students: the level of extroversion and homophilia. Homophilia refers to the fact that people with similar levels of introversion or extroversion are more likely to find friends within the same group.
These students filled out two surveys, one at five weeks of starting college and another at eleven weeks. They also completed questionnaires that inquired with whom they socialized and tests to assess their level of introversion / extroversion.
The results showed that extroverts tend to connect with other extroverts, so their social networks often contain an overwhelming majority of extroverts. However, introverts were more likely to form social networks more "balanced", which represent a more complete demographic.
As a result, extroverts tend to fall into what is known as the "paradox of Friendship". This theory was proposed in 1991 by sociologist Scott Feld, who noted that most people have fewer friends than those with their friends. This is because usually they choose people who are already as friends , in turn, have many friends. We prefer extroverts, rather than introverts. Therefore, the chances of our friends have more friends than we are high.
In this study it was observed that extroverted people think they are much more sociable than they are in reality, which is that inferences about themselves and their social relations depend to a large extent on the social network they have built .
That is, extroverts tend to go out a lot and meet similar people. From their point of view, the world is full of "butterflies flitting". On the contrary, introverts are aware that there are those "butterflies", but also know they are not everywhere.
So if you're an extrovert, you may have a skewed view of yourself and your friends. However, if you are introverted, you can have a much more accurate and objective idea, which is that introversion stimulates qualities like reflection and observation skills, which allow better gauge of the social world and understand how it works.
In fact, contrary to popular belief, introverts are not bad communicators. Simply they prefer to be in smaller groups of people, rather than go for large groups. They value the quality of relationships over quantity.
As a postscript, did you know that introverts are better managers than extroverts? It has been shown that people with tendency to introversion best administered not only time but may also be better to guide a business approach.
Another study at the University of Pennsylvania found that proactive employees perform their work better when they are under the command of an introvert. This is because the introverted leaders are more likely to listen and pay attention to people who are under his command, and to recognize their efforts.
Thanks for reading:)