Another Advantage to Being an Introvert

Another Advantage to Being an Introvert

An interesting study reported in the Academy of Management Journal, underscores what Susan Cain pointed out in her book Quiet.  Businesses, and especially business schools, are drawn to the extroverted personalities, but it is the introverts who make it happen in business.

A new study by UCLA’s school of management looks at the same thing.  Only they refer to the introvert as the neurotic personality.   As a psychologist, I’ve always assumed that most healthy people are a little neurotic, so their choice of terms is misleading.  But when you read the article, they are clearly talking about the opposite of the extrovert–the introvert.

A business schools style of teaching is oriented to the extrovert  They typically teach through case studies that are analyzed in small groups–an approach that extroverts love to participate in, but the introvert seeks to avoid.  But this recent study shows the dynamic of why the extrovert doesn’t shine as expected in the MBA programs.

In this study, they looked at how the other people in the group would rate the contributions made by both the extrovert and what they called the neurotic (the introvert).  Most participants said they expected a lot from the extroverts, but when they rated the withdrawn and anxious appearing introvert/neurotic, they didn’t expect very much in the way of contributing to the team project.

Following a ten-week project, the researchers returned to the teams to evaluate the team member’s evaluations of the extroverts and the introvert/neurotics.  They found that as a whole, the extroverts disappointed their other team members, while the introvert/neurotics exceeded expectations and contributed more generously to the group than anyone had expected.

Susan Cain reported that while Business Schools sought out the extroverted candidates, over the long run, they discovered that it was the introverted students who excelled when it came to actually performing in the business world

One could easily say that the introverted/neurotic is not valued in our culture.  It is the extrovert who is looked up to, even though they eventually disappoint.  The results reported by the researchers at UCLA were that at the core of the extroverted personality is a need to seek attention.  They talk well, don’t listen very much, and as a whole are not very receptive to other people’s input.  So maybe the emphasis is shifting away from the extrovert to the introvert.  As an introvert, I welcome the shift.  My wife (the extrovert) thinks I’m biased.  We’ll have to do a positive blog on extroverts.

Question:  Which are you–extroverted or introverted?  Anything ring true to you in this study?