Introverts must not be lost amid noise made by extroverts

Extroverts seem like they rule the world, but reflective listening skills are also needed.

The culture of celebrity is the culture of extroversion. American Idol, Arab Idol, Big Brother and other puzzlingly popular TV shows are indicative of our obsessive infatuation with extroverted exhibitionism.

However, our adoration of excessively outgoing and outspoken individuals is not confined to the entertainment industry. Extroverted maxims such as “think fast” and “just do it” are now equally at home in our classrooms, and boardrooms too. The societal message is loud and clear; if you’re an introvert, you’d better learn to act like an extrovert if you want to get ahead.

In her book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, Susan Cain, describes how Harvard Business School (“the spiritual home of extroversion”) pushes the extroverted ideal to its outer limits.

Professors there are reportedly called to account if students show signs of holding back during classroom discussions. Meanwhile, those students who talk fastest, loudest and most tend to reap the greatest rewards.

This culture of hyper-sociable extroversion has transformed the way we work and teach. Many organisations have opted for open-plan workspaces, where quiet reflective introspection is hardly an option.

Similarly, within our educational institutions we increasingly emphasise “flipping the classroom”, that is, sending the students to the front to give presentations, perform role-plays and hold fourth on the topic of the day. Team work and group assignments have, for some instructors, become the primary form of assessment, rather than an occasional departure from the pedagogic norm.

We provide courses and seminars for public speaking, persuasive communication, and presentation skills – but almost nothing explicitly devoted to attentive reflective listening skills.

While teamwork and confidence in public speaking are undoubtedly valuable skills, we do our students and societies a disservice if we fail to provide balance.

Over emphasising the extroverted ideal can lead to organisations and societies where the introverted contribution is all too often drowned out by the fast talking, fast thinking extrovert. Who knows how many great ideas and opportunities have been lost as a consequence of unfettered, extroverted vociferousness. And how many catastrophes could have been averted if only we’d have listened to the thoughtful, but occasionally quiet, voice of introversion?

Within my own classes at Zayed University, each student completes the “Big Five Inventory”, an English-Arabic version of a widely used measure of personality. Knowing our introversion and extroversion scores allow us to explore how these personality traits play out in the classroom.

After a few fun activities the students quickly learn to appreciate each other’s relative strengths.

One thing we learn during these sessions is that the extroverts will always be the first to volunteer for class activities, often without even knowing what it is they are volunteering for. We use this information to institute a policy of always asking for an extrovert and an introvert volunteer.

For some activities we also introduce a system where you have to “pay-to-speak”, the currency being Post-it notes. This activity highlights the valuable contributions that introverts can make once the extroverts are silenced by Post-it note poverty.

More importantly, however, we ensure that the course assessments – the various projects students will be graded on – strike a balance between the working preferences and relative strengths of introverts and extroverts.

It is particularly important not to lose the contributions of introverted students.

Without getting into a dubious listing of “famous introverts” (such as Albert Einstein), there is clear evidence that many highly creative individuals are introverted. A 1960s landmark study conducted at the University of California, Berkeley, attempted to uncover the nature of creativity.

This study involved comparing large numbers of field leaders (mathematicians, architects, writers etc) with average individuals within the same fields. One of the findings – subsequently repeated – was that the field leaders were more likely than their average-performing counterparts to be introverts.

An overemphasis on extroversion, as is the case at Harvard, would arguably be even more problematic in the context of the UAE.

Research spanning 36 nations, published in the Journal of Cross Cultural Psychology in 2004, suggests that collectivist cultures, such as those of the Arabian Gulf, tend to be more introverted, whereas extroversion tends to be more common within individualistic cultures such as those found in North America.

Certainly, the personality data I have collected from my own classes agrees with this finding; the extroversion score for Emirati students is significantly lower than the average reported for their North American counterparts.

Forcing square pegs into round holes is never a great idea. If we aim to continuously improve our educational effectiveness; balance, flexibility and cultural sensitivity are vitally important components.

Justin Thomas is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Zayed University and Author of Psychological Well-Being in the Gulf States

On Twitter: @Jaytee156