What is an ambivert?
FRANKIE BROWN, LONDON
Love partying and adventure? You’re probably an extravert. Prefer quiet time to read and reflect? You’re more likely an introvert. If you’re somewhere in the middle and like a mix of these experiences, you might be an ambivert. First proposed by the US psychologist Edmund Smith Conklin in 1923, the idea that some of us are ambiverts fell out of favour in personality psychology, which today sees the main personality traits (including extraversion) as dimensions rather than types.
However, the concept captured the popular imagination – and inspired a thousand online quizzes – in 2013 after another US psychologist, Adam Grant, published research suggesting that people with a mix of introverted and extraverted tendencies have an adaptable interpersonal style that helps them to excel in sales. CJ
Email your questions to
questions@sciencefocus.com
or submit on Twitter
@sciencefocus