Skip to main content
Home
  • Connect!
  • Donate
  • My Account
  • Join/Login
  • S
  • Connect!
  • Join/Login
  • Home
  • About
    • What is Social and Personality Psychology?
    • Leadership
      • Elections
    • Get Involved
    • Committees
    • Diversity & Inclusion Initiatives
    • Government Relations
    • Governance Documents
    • Staff
    • Jobs at SPSP
      • Benefits of Working at SPSP
      • Current Openings
  • Members
    • Membership Categories and Rates
    • Member Demographics
    • Member Directory
    • Collaboration Zone
    • APA Division 8
    • Fellows
    • Listservs and Shared Interest Groups
    • Member Deals and Discounts
  • Publications
    • Best Practices
    • Publication Policies
    • Resources
    • PSPB
      • Editorial Philosophy
      • Manuscript Preparation/Submission Guidelines
      • PSPB Online
    • PSPR
      • Editorial Philosophy
      • Manuscript Preparation
      • PSPR Online
    • SPPS
      • Manuscript Preparation
      • SPPS Online
  • Events
    • 2022 Convention
    • Future/Past Conventions
    • Summer Psychology Forum
    • Society of Southeastern Social Psychologists
    • APA Convention (Division 8)
    • Student Opportunities
      • SISPP
      • SPUR
      • EASP
      • EAPP
    • Learning Online
  • Giving
    • Ways to Give
    • Planned Giving
    • Tribute Wall
    • Annual Reports
    • ARP Awards
  • Awards/Grants
    • Annual Awards
      • Senior Career Contribution Awards
      • Mid-Career Awards
      • Early Career Awards
      • Teaching and Mentoring Awards
      • Prizes for a Single Outstanding Contribution
      • Media Awards
      • Service Awards
      • Student Awards
      • Diversity Awards
    • Student Awards
      • Heritage Dissertation Research Award
      • Outstanding Research Award
      • Graduate Student Poster Award
      • Undergraduate Student Poster Award
      • Student Publication Prize
      • Jenessa Shapiro Graduate Research Award
      • Graduate Travel/Registration Award
      • Diversity Graduate Travel/Registration Award
      • Diversity Undergraduate Registration Award
    • Diversity Awards
      • Jenessa Shapiro Award for Contributions to Diversity and Inclusion
      • Jenessa Shapiro Graduate Research Award
      • Diversity Graduate Travel/Registration Award
      • Diversity Undergraduate Registration Award
    • Heritage Wall of Fame
    • International Awards
      • International Travel/Registration Award
      • International Bridge-Building Award
    • Legacy Program
    • Travel/Registration Awards
      • Graduate Travel/Registration Award
      • Diversity Graduate Travel/Registration Award
      • Diversity Undergraduate Registration Award
      • Teacher & Scholar Travel/Registration Award
      • International Travel/Registration Award
      • International Bridge-Building Award
    • Small Research Grant Program
    • Small Conference Grant Program
    • Community Catalyst Grant Program
  • News
    • Character and Context Blog
    • Member Updates
    • Press Releases
    • Member Newsletter
    • Student Newsletter
  • Resources
    • Connect!
    • Racism, Bias & Diversity
    • Free-Form Fridays
    • Students
      • Graduate Program Directory
      • Applying to Grad School
      • Life in Graduate School
    • Early Career
    • Primarily Undergraduate Institutions
    • Multimedia
      • #SPSPchat
      • SPSP Experts
      • Out of the Lab
      • Convention Videos
    • Funding
    • International Study and Work
    • Statistics & Data Analysis
    • Teaching
      • Recommended Textbooks
      • Syllabi Examples
      • Teaching Aids
      • Video
    • Applied Psychology
  • Careers
    • Find/Post a Job
    • Graduation Outcomes
    • Career Resources
    • Academic Job Market
    • Non-Academic Job Market
    • Undergraduate Research
  • Connect!
  • Join/Login
  • Home
  • About
    • What is Social and Personality Psychology?
    • Leadership
      • Elections
    • Get Involved
    • Committees
    • Diversity & Inclusion Initiatives
    • Government Relations
    • Governance Documents
    • Staff
    • Jobs at SPSP
      • Benefits of Working at SPSP
      • Current Openings
  • Members
    • Membership Categories and Rates
    • Member Demographics
    • Member Directory
    • Collaboration Zone
    • APA Division 8
    • Fellows
    • Listservs and Shared Interest Groups
    • Member Deals and Discounts
  • Publications
    • Best Practices
    • Publication Policies
    • Resources
    • PSPB
      • Editorial Philosophy
      • Manuscript Preparation/Submission Guidelines
      • PSPB Online
    • PSPR
      • Editorial Philosophy
      • Manuscript Preparation
      • PSPR Online
    • SPPS
      • Manuscript Preparation
      • SPPS Online
  • Events
    • 2022 Convention
    • Future/Past Conventions
    • Summer Psychology Forum
    • Society of Southeastern Social Psychologists
    • APA Convention (Division 8)
    • Student Opportunities
      • SISPP
      • SPUR
      • EASP
      • EAPP
    • Learning Online
  • Giving
    • Ways to Give
    • Planned Giving
    • Tribute Wall
    • Annual Reports
    • ARP Awards
  • Awards/Grants
    • Annual Awards
      • Senior Career Contribution Awards
      • Mid-Career Awards
      • Early Career Awards
      • Teaching and Mentoring Awards
      • Prizes for a Single Outstanding Contribution
      • Media Awards
      • Service Awards
      • Student Awards
      • Diversity Awards
    • Student Awards
      • Heritage Dissertation Research Award
      • Outstanding Research Award
      • Graduate Student Poster Award
      • Undergraduate Student Poster Award
      • Student Publication Prize
      • Jenessa Shapiro Graduate Research Award
      • Graduate Travel/Registration Award
      • Diversity Graduate Travel/Registration Award
      • Diversity Undergraduate Registration Award
    • Diversity Awards
      • Jenessa Shapiro Award for Contributions to Diversity and Inclusion
      • Jenessa Shapiro Graduate Research Award
      • Diversity Graduate Travel/Registration Award
      • Diversity Undergraduate Registration Award
    • Heritage Wall of Fame
    • International Awards
      • International Travel/Registration Award
      • International Bridge-Building Award
    • Legacy Program
    • Travel/Registration Awards
      • Graduate Travel/Registration Award
      • Diversity Graduate Travel/Registration Award
      • Diversity Undergraduate Registration Award
      • Teacher & Scholar Travel/Registration Award
      • International Travel/Registration Award
      • International Bridge-Building Award
    • Small Research Grant Program
    • Small Conference Grant Program
    • Community Catalyst Grant Program
  • News
    • Character and Context Blog
    • Member Updates
    • Press Releases
    • Member Newsletter
    • Student Newsletter
  • Resources
    • Connect!
    • Racism, Bias & Diversity
    • Free-Form Fridays
    • Students
      • Graduate Program Directory
      • Applying to Grad School
      • Life in Graduate School
    • Early Career
    • Primarily Undergraduate Institutions
    • Multimedia
      • #SPSPchat
      • SPSP Experts
      • Out of the Lab
      • Convention Videos
    • Funding
    • International Study and Work
    • Statistics & Data Analysis
    • Teaching
      • Recommended Textbooks
      • Syllabi Examples
      • Teaching Aids
      • Video
    • Applied Psychology
  • Careers
    • Find/Post a Job
    • Graduation Outcomes
    • Career Resources
    • Academic Job Market
    • Non-Academic Job Market
    • Undergraduate Research

You are here

Home » News » Character and Context Blog

Character  &  Context

The Science of Who We Are and How We Relate
Editors: Judith Hall, Leah Dickens, Colleen Sinclair

 

Oct 01, 2021

What Happens When Introverts Act Like Extraverts? In a Word, Leadership

by Andrew Spark
Woman speaking to group of women
Image by rawpixel.com


Quiet, reserved, shy, unassertive. These are terms often used to describe introverts and are not usually the behaviors we think of when we think of a leader. Instead, we tend to associate leadership behavior with being bold, assertive, and outgoing—these terms are used to describe extraverts.

Why are people low in extraversion—introverts—perceived to be less leaderlike (even in their own opinion)? More importantly, what behavioral strategies can introverts use to overcome this perception?

How To Create  Leaders

Together with my colleague, Professor Peter O’Connor, we hoped to see if we could improve how introverts viewed their own leadership capability, and how others viewed them. In groups of three or four, over 600 people worked together to solve an ambiguous survival problem developed by NASA that involved a hypothetical crash-landing on the Moon. We also measured the personalities of the participants, including how extraverted they were. Before the group activity started, we selected one person within each group to enact one of the following behavioral instructions:

  • To act energetic, talkative, enthusiastic, bold, active, assertive, and sociable—this was the ‘act extraverted’ instruction
  • To act quiet, reserved, lethargic, passive, compliant, and unadventurous—the ‘act introverted’ instruction
  • No special instruction—they were free to act how they wanted during the activity

We measured the leadership of all participants both in terms of how they viewed their own leadership behaviors and how their group members viewed their leadership behaviors. We then compared how much leadership was displayed by the chosen participants in each of the three conditions. We also compared how much positive and negative emotion the chosen participants felt after the activity.

What did we find? Extraverts did indeed enjoy more leadership potential, no matter what instructions they received. Also, introverts who were instructed to act like extraverts were more likely to emerge as leaders in their group, without any damage to their positive or negative emotion.

Extraverts were another matter entirely. Extraverts who were instructed to act quiet, reserved, shy, and so forth thought quite poorly of their own leadership capability. They also felt worse emotionally. Quite simply, extraverts didn’t like acting introverted.

You may be surprised that introverts who acted like extraverts didn’t suffer emotionally, but other research also shows that introverts do quite well when they act extraverted. So, why do introverts not act extraverted more often? It seems one of the biggest barriers to introverts acting extraverted may not be the acting itself, but the expectation of the acting. Introverts think that acting like an extravert will be unpleasant, when in fact it usually isn’t.

Leadership Takeaways

First, extraverts are, on average, seen to be more leaderlike than introverts. Second—and fortunately—personality is not completely deterministic because you can engage in behaviors that are “out of character” to achieve leadership goals. And finally, for introverts, acting out of character does not appear to make them unhappy, but for extraverts it does.

But should an introvert have to act like an extravert to obtain a leadership position, or should leadership positions better adapt to allow for more introverted leaders? My answer is a little of both, although I lean more towards the former than the latter. Leadership is inherently a socially-oriented role. It doesn’t make sense that you can be effective in a leadership role without engaging in at least some of the behaviors that define extraversion, such as being assertive, bold, talkative, and energetic. Furthermore, being behaviorally flexible can be a character strength.

At the same time, there are situations where organizations should embrace introverted leadership. This can happen on teams where the members are already very proactive and like to get things done. In that case, it may be better to have an introverted leader at the helm because they are less likely to assert themselves and potentially “get in the way.”

In sum, both introverts and extraverts can be great leaders, but introverts are less likely to be viewed as leaderlike. However, introverts can adapt their behavior to enhance their leadership potential, with minimal emotional cost, even though they may not think that doing so will be much fun.


For Further Reading

Grant, A. M., Gino, F., & Hofmann, D. A. (2011). Reversing the extraverted leadership advantage: The role of employee proactivity. Academy of Management Journal, 54(3), 528-550. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2011.61968043

Spark, A., & O'Connor, P. J. (2021). State extraversion and emergent leadership: Do introverts emerge as leaders when they act like extraverts? The Leadership Quarterly, 32(3), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2020.101474

Zelenski, J. M., Whelan, D. C., Nealis, L. J., Besner, C. M., Santoro, M. S., & Wynn, J. E. (2013). Personality and affective forecasting: Trait introverts underpredict the hedonic benefits of acting extraverted. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 104(6), 1092-1108. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032281
 

Andrew Spark is a personality scientist at Queensland University of Technology and conducts research into the causes and consequences of acting out of character.

Tags: 
extraversion
introversion
leadership

About our Blog

Why is this blog called Character & Context?

Everything that people think, feel, and do is affected by some combination of their personal characteristics and features of the social context they are in at the time. Character & Context explores the latest insights about human behavior from research in personality and social psychology, the scientific field that studies the causes of everyday behaviors.  

□Learn More
□Contribute a Blog to Character & Context

Search the Blog

Get Email Updates from the Blog

Click below to join the Character & Context mailing list.
Subscribe

Popular Articles

When Meeting Someone New, Try Skirting the Small Talk and Digging a Little Deeper
Trash Cans, Eyes, and Littering
The Belief That Engaging in Extraordinary Experiences Together Can Foster Relationships
A Whiteness Pandemic Is Behind the Racism Pandemic
The Pursuit of Romantic Alternatives Disguised as Friends on Social Media

Share this page
 
Society for Personality and Social Psychology
1120 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 280
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 869-3240
info@spsp.org
Facebook Icon Twitter Icon LinkedIn Icon
  • Connect!
  • Join/Login
  • Home
  • About
  • Members
  • Publications
  • Events
  • Giving
  • Awards/Grants
  • News
  • Resources
  • Careers
© 2022. Society for Personality and Social Psychology®. All rights reserved.

View our Privacy Policy here.