Do We Feel Better When We Behave More Extraverted Than What We Are?
Franco Greco • July 20, 2021
Research has shown many benefits to extraversion. If you’re not naturally extraverted, however, these wellbeing benefits are not necessarily out of reach.
A number of studies
have found that extraverts at work are: 1) more motivated, 2) experience more positive emotions, 3) work harder, 4) have fewer adverse experiences at work, and 5) associated with more creative thinking.
If you’re not disposed to being extravert, are wellbeing benefits out of reach your reach?
In his new book, Be Who You Want, Dr Christian Jarrett argues that contrary to the old adage, not only can the leopard change their spots, they can swap them for stripes, and that they can do so to his own advantage. He outlines evidence-based ways to change each of the main five personality traits, including how to become more emotionally stable, extrovert and open-minded.
A recent study, provides support for this argument. The researchers found that higher-than-normal levels of extraversion-related behaviours are associated with more positive feelings — even for those who aren’t extraverted to begin with.
Assessing participants over two different time periods showed that participants: who behaved:
- In a more introverted way than they usually do experienced lower levels of positive feeling.
- More extraverted than usual - even when their average level of extraversion was not high - they had higher levels of positive feeling. This suggests that behaving in an extraverted way may increase feelings of wellbeing.
The researchers concluded that behaving in a more extraverted manner than normal did not seem to have negative impacts, even for the more introverted participants, in the longer term.
However some studies
have found less clear-cut benefits: even if introverts experienced momentary gains in positive affect. The positive impacts didn’t last and were subsequently associated with fatigue and negative emotions.
So how can they someone engage in more extraverted behaviour, if they are introverted without costs? Another study examined participants in a 15-week intensive longitudinal design that tested whether engaging in trait-typical behaviors predicted trait change. Participants provided self-report ratings of their personality traits and were able to freely accept and complete weekly “challenges”—prewritten behavioral goals that would pull their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in line with their desired traits.
For instance, an easy Extraversion challenge was to say “hello” to a cashier whereas a hard Extraversion challenge was to volunteer to take a leadership role, such as on a class project.
Results indicated that merely accepting behavioral challenges did not predict trait changes. Rather, only actually completing challenges (i.e., performing trait-typical behaviors) predicted trait change over time. Thus, merely wanting to change does not appear to be sufficient to evoke trait growth; successfully changing one’s personality traits may require actively and successfully implementing behaviors to change oneself.
Are you interested in exploring extraverted challenges? I will be writing more about this in the next article.
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