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1、The Power of In trovertsToday we make room for a remarkably narrow range of pers on ality styles. We're told that to be great is to be bold, to be happy is to be sociable. We see ourselves as a n ati on of extroverts - which means that we've lost sight of who we really are. Depe nding on whi
2、ch study you con sult, on e-third to on e-half of America ns are in troverts - in other words, one out of every two or three people you know. (Give n that the Un ited States is among the most extroverted of n ati ons, the nu mber must be at least as high in other parts of the world.) If you're n
3、ot an in trovert yourself, you are surely raisi ng, man agi ng, married to, or coupled with one.If these statistics surprise you, that's probably because so many people pretend to be extroverts. Closet in troverts pass un detected on playgro un ds, in high school locker rooms, and in the corrido
4、rs of corporate America. Some fool even themselves, until some life event - a layoff, an empty nest, an inheritance that frees them to spend time as they like -jolts them into tak ing stock of their true n atures. You have on ly to raise the subject of this book with your friends and acqua intances
5、to find that the most un likely people con sider themselves in troverts.It makes sense that so many introverts hide even from themselves. We live with a value system that I call the Extrovert Ideal - the omnipresent belief that the ideal self is gregarious, alpha, and comfortable in the spotlight. T
6、he archetypal extrovert prefers action to contemplation, risk- taking to heed-taking, certainty to doubt. He favors quick decisions, even at the risk of being wrong. She works well in teams and socializes in groups. We like to thi nk that we value in dividuality, but all too ofte n we admire one typ
7、e of in dividual - the kind who's comfortable "putt ing himself out there." Sure, we allow tech no logically gifted loners who launch compa nies in garages to have any pers on ality they please, but they are the excepti ons, not the rule, and our tolera nce exte nds mainly to those who
8、 get fabulously wealthy or hold the promise of doing so.In trovers ion - along with its cous ins sen sitivity, serious ness, and shyn ess - is now a sec ond- class pers on ality trait, somewhere betwee n a disappo in tme nt and a pathology. Introverts living under the Extrovert Ideal are like women
9、in a man's world, discounted because of a trait that goes to the core of who they are. Extrovers ion is an eno rmously appeali ng pers on ality style, but we've turned it into an oppressive sta ndard to which most of us feel we must conform.The Extrovert Ideal has bee n docume nted in many s
10、tudies, though this research has n ever bee n grouped un der a sin gle n ame. Talkative people, for example, are rated as smarter, better- looki ng, more in teresti ng, and more desirable as frien ds. Velocity of speech counts as well as volume: we rank fast talkers as more compete nt and likable th
11、a n slow on es. The same dyn amics apply in groups, where research shows that the voluble are con sidered smarter tha n the retice nt - even though there's zero correlati on betwee n the gift of gab and good ideas. Even the word in trovert is stigmatized - one in formal study, by psychologist La
12、urie Helgoe, found that in troverts described their own physical appeara nee in vivid Ian guage ( "gree n-blue eyes, " "exotic, " "high cheekb on es"), but whe n asked to describe gen eric in troverts they drew a bla nd and distasteful picture ("ungainly, ” "n
13、 eutral colors, " "sk in problems").But we make a grave mistake to embrace the Extrovert Ideal so unthinkin gly. Some of our greatest ideas, art, and inven ti ons - from the theory of evoluti on to van Gogh's sun flowers to the personal computer - came from quiet and cerebral people who knew how to tune in to their inner worlds and the treasures to be found there.Copyright 2012 by Susan Cain. From the book QUIET: The Power Of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talk ing by Susa n Cain, published by Crow n, a divisi on of Ran dom House, Inc. Reprinted with permission