We Feel Happier When Behaving More Extraverted Than Normal

This study also took place over a shorter time period, with the researchers comparing responses during two three-day periods rather than across several weeks). Again, participants reported lower levels of positive affect during periods in which they had behaved in a more introverted fashion, while in more extroverted periods they experienced higher levels — although these effects were only trends which did not reach statistical significance.

In these studies, 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, other work has found less clear-cut benefits: even if introverts experienced momentary gains in positive affect these didn’t last, and there were other troublesome impacts including fatigue and negative emotion. This may be because those previous studies had participants “act like an extravert” or behave in a way that felt unnatural to them, while in the new work the researchers simply looked at the changes in people’s behaviour on a day-to-day basis.

As the team acknowledges, the study can’t determine the direction of causality between extraversion and positive feelings. Rather than extraverted behaviour increasing positive feelings, could it be that positive affect induces more extraverted behaviour? Future work could look more closely at the direction of this relationship.

If the results have made you want to boost your trait extraversion...

Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - June 29, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Personality Source Type: blogs