A reward-sensitive person is highly motivated to seek rewards—from a promotion to a lottery jackpot to an enjoyable evening out with friends. Reward sensitivity motivates us to pursue goals like sex a...
A man has as many social selves as there are distinct groups of persons about whose opinion he cares. He generally shows a different side of himself to each of these different groups. —WILLIAM JAMES
Finland is a famously introverted nation. Finnish joke: How can you tell if a Finn likes you? He's staring at your shoes instead of his own.)
What she meant by creative, she answered without missing a beat. You have to be outgoing, fun, and jazzed up to work here.
Today we make room for a remarkably narrow range of personality styles.
The medium is not always the message; and that people followed Moses because his words were thoughtful, not because he spoke them well.
Shy and introverted people might choose to spend their days in behind-the-scenes pursuits like inventing, or researching, or
She knew that she was just doing what you learn to do naturally as a quiet person in a loudmouth world.
Our Charlie Brown moments are the price we have to pay to bang our drums happily through the decades.
Men regarded ability in speaking as a peculiar gift, needed only by the lawyer, clergyman, or statesman. Today we have come to realize that it is the indispensable weapon of those who would forge ahea...
It takes approximately ten thousand hours of Deliberate Practice to gain true expertise,
Introverts prefer to work independently, and solitude can be a catalyst to innovation. As the influential psychologist Hans Eysenck once observed, introversion concentrates the mind on the tasks in ha...
In settled populations, people with this same gene form have poorer nutrition. The same traits that make a nomad fierce enough to hunt and to defend livestock against raiders may hinder more sedentary...
How frustrated he is by his colleagues’ failure to distinguish between good presentation skills and true leadership ability.
Extroverts are sociable because their brains are good at handling competing demands on their attention—which is just what dinner-party conversation involves. In contrast, introverts often feel repelle...
All talking is selling and all selling involves talking,
A psychologist named Solomon Asch conducted a series of now-famous experiments on the dangers of group influence. Asch gathered student volunteers into groups and had them take a vision test. He showe...
Would you be surprised if I told you that the vaudevillean professor and the recluse who prefers a life of the mind are one and
Whenever you’re in an army group and somebody says, ‘I think we’re all getting on the bus to Abilene here,’ that is a red flag.
What scientists haven’t realized until recently is that these risk factors have an upside. In other words, the sensitivities and the strengths are a package deal. High-reactive kids who enjoy good par...