The Real Differences Between Introverts and Extroverts
Understanding these two types of personalities can help us better understand how personality is formed.
This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.
One of the many effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Americans’ social lives was that it allowed introverts and extroverts to understand each other better. “In ordinary times, American introverts are like cats living in Dogland: underappreciated, uncomfortable, and slightly out of place,” Arthur C. Brooks wrote in 2021. “A side effect of shutting down the world was to turn it into Catland, at least for a little while. That gave the introverts a chance to lord their solitary comfort over the rest of us, for once.”
Each introvert has their own appetite for socializing, and extroverts still need alone time to recharge. Many people also fall somewhere in the middle, just trying to navigate the business of being human. Ultimately, Brooks argues, if introverts and extroverts can learn from one another, both will benefit. Understanding these two types of personalities can help us better understand how personality is formed, and how it changes. Today’s newsletter explores what introvert/extrovert labels can actually tell us about people, and what they can’t explain.
On Introverts and Extroverts
The Nocturnals
By Faith Hill
While most people are fast asleep, some ultra-introverts are going about their lives, reveling in the quiet and solitude. They challenge a core assumption of psychology: that all humans need social connection.
What Introverts and Extroverts Can Learn From Each Other
By Arthur C. Brooks
Going against your instincts can help make you happier.
Caring for Your Introvert
By Jonathan Rauch
The habits and needs of a little-understood group (From 2003)
Still Curious?
- Make room, introverts—everyone needs time to recharge. A new study suggests that socializing is always tiring, regardless of personality, Julie Beck wrote in 2016.
- A crucial character trait for happiness: Don’t curb your enthusiasm, Arthur C. Brooks advises.
Other Diversions
- A baffling movie backed by Godfather money
- Couples therapy, but for siblings
- Six books that feel like watching a movie
P.S.
I recently asked readers to share a photo of something that sparks their sense of awe in the world. “My husband took this photo of the afternoon light on the terrace outside the kitchen door on an ordinary late afternoon in September, when the hydrangeas and the star clematis were blooming,” Wendy MacLeod, 65, in Gambier, Ohio, writes.
I’ll continue to feature your responses in the coming weeks. If you’d like to share, reply to this email with a photo and a short description so we can share your wonder with fellow readers in a future edition of this newsletter or on our website. Please include your name (initials are okay), age, and location. By doing so, you agree that The Atlantic has permission to publish your photo and publicly attribute the response to you, including your first name and last initial, age, and/or location that you share with your submission.
— Isabel
What's Your Reaction?
