We don ’ t trust extraverts more than introverts

By Emily Reynolds

When you think of an extravert, what personality traits come to mind? Sociability? Fun? While we often make positive judgments about extraversion, the picture is more complex, with negative traits also projected onto extraverts. Some research suggests that extraverts are seen as poorer listeners, for example.

A new study, published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, looks specifically at how much people trust those who are extraverted. The team finds that agreeableness, not extraversion, is the key to gaining trust in social situations.

In the first study, participants were told they would be matched with another participant (who in reality did not exist) to play a trust game, in which decisions they made would affect both their payoffs and the payoffs of the other participant. All participants were given the role of the “trustor”, while their apparent partner played the “trustee”. They started with £1. If they chose to keep the money, this did not increase, but if they transferred it to their partner it was tripled. The partner could then choose how much of the £3 to transfer back to the participant.

After being given the £1, participants were told that their partner was either agreeable or disagreeable, and extraverted or introverted. They were then asked to indicate whether they would transfer the money or not.

The results showed that participants were more likely to trust agreeable than ...

Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - June 23, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Personality Social Source Type: blogs