By the time I was old enough to figure out that I was simply introverted, it was a part of my being, the assumption that there is something inherently wrong with me.
At IBM, a corporation that embodied the ideal of the company man, the sales force gathered each morning to belt out the company anthem, Ever Onward, and to harmonize on the Selling IBM song, set to th...
America had shifted from what influential cultural historian Warren Susman called a culture of character to a culture of personality, and opened up a Pandora's box of personal anxieties of which we wo...
Amazingly, neuroscientists have even found that people who use Botox, which prevents them from making angry faces, seem to be less anger-prone than those who don’t, because the very act of frowning tr...
All the comments from childhood still ring in my ears, that I was lazy, stupid, slow, boring, writes a member of an e-mail list called Introvert Retreat. By the time I was old enough to figure out tha...
A well-known study out of UC Berkeley by organizational behavior professor Philip Tetlock found that television pundits—that is, people who earn their livings by holding forth confidently on the basis...
A local college counselor named Purvi Modi agrees. Introversion is not looked down upon, she tells me. It is accepted. In some cases it is even highly respected and admired. It is cool to be a Master...
A few things introverts are not: The word introvert is not a synonym for hermit or misanthrope. Introverts can be these things, but most are perfectly friendly.
1. _______ I prefer one-on-one conversations to group activities. 2. _______ I often prefer to express myself in writing. 3. _______ I enjoy solitude. 4. _______ I seem to care less than my peer...
If you can think of meetings you've attended, you can probably recall a time - plenty of times - when the opinion of the most dynamic or talkative person prevailed to the detriment of all.
Keltner even says that if he had to choose his mate by asking a single question at a speed-dating event, the question he would choose is: What was your last embarrassing experience? Then he would watc...
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.)
When introverts assume the observer role, as when they write novels, or contemplate unified field theory—or fall quiet at dinner parties—they’re not demonstrating a failure of will or a lack of energy...
They dream vividly, and can often recall their dreams the next day. They love music, nature, art, physical beauty. They feel exceptionally strong emotions—sometimes acute bouts of joy, but also sorrow...
People who tend to [suppress their negative emotions] regularly, concludes Grob, might start to see the world in a more negative light.
It’s not that I’m so smart, said Einstein, who was a consummate introvert. It’s that I stay with problems longer.
It's not always so easy, it turns out, to identify your core personal projects. And it can be especially tough for introverts, who have spent so much of their lives conforming to extroverted norms tha...
In the Culture of Character, the ideal self was serious, disciplined, and honorable. What counted was not so much the impression one made in public as how one behaved in private. The word personality...
In China there was more emphasis on listening, on asking questions rather than holding forth, on putting others’ needs first. In the United States, he feels, conversation is about how effective you ar...
INTROVERTS are especially vulnerable to challenges like marital tension, a parent’s death, or abuse. They’re more likely than their peers to react to these events with depression, anxiety, and shyness...