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The idea of introverts and extraverts being distinct groups of people with completely different neurological responses to social situations is a largely false o

The idea of introverts and extraverts being distinct groups of people with completely different neurological responses to social situations is a largely false one, created by self-help woo merchants to unhelpfully pathologise the feeling that EVERYONE has from time to time that they want to be left the fuck alone. You know what? It's a normal, neurotypical part of life as a homo sapiens to want to be by yourself sometimes. And equally, it's a normal, neurotypical part of life as a homo sapiens to want to socialise sometimes. We're a weird species like that, the way sometimes we want something and other times we want the opposite.

adamnemecek 9y ago
Sure, but while I do agree that the neurological differences might be non-existent, I think that if you were to plot the amount of time people spend in social setting, you'd get something like a normal distribution. You could designate one end as introverts and one as extroverts.
- alexvy86 9y ago
  Exactly this. And if I might nitpick a bit, I'd say "the amount of time people WANT to spend in social settings". Which would probably correlate well to the actual time spent in such settings, but to me the heart of the matter is that some people just aren't look for it, while others are.
- sliverstorm 9y ago
  That's important though. It's probably a normal distribution. Not some crazy bimodal or something.
sseagull 9y ago
> The idea of introverts and extraverts being distinct groups of people with completely different neurological responses to social situations is a largely false one Why would you say that? Even perusing the wikipedia article shows that there is at least some evidence for a biological basis, and that it is being researched. Maybe it's not up to your standards, but it's far from being settled as a bunch of 'woo' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraversion_and_introversion#Biological_factors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraversion_and_introversion#...
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- 131012 9y ago
  Have you read the article? It defends the original position you quote, especially in the case of jungian psychology and myer-briggs model. Everytime you hear someone saying you can divide the world in two separate categories, you can know that the vision it creates is blurry at best. Juste like saying pi = 2. It's technically not wrong, but a rather useless info.
woodandsteel 9y ago
>The idea of introverts and extraverts being distinct groups of people with completely different neurological responses to social situations is a largely false one Are you saying it is possible there are neurological differences, but it hasn't been proven? Or are you saying it has been proven that there are no neurological differences? I could be wrong, but my best guess is that you are not familiar with this area of science, much less science in general, and made that claim for reasons having more to do with your personal philosophy. Am I right?
- ZenoArrow 9y ago
  > "Or are you saying it has been proven that there are no neurological differences?" Beware of confirmation bias. If you've convinced yourself something exists, and discover some patterns in data that line up with previous beliefs, that will be classed as evidence even without understanding what those patterns truly represent.
pks016 9y ago
I agree with that based on my personal experience so far.Sometimes I want to be alone not being disturbed or interrupted by other people.But my friends will think that something happened to me, in reality I just want to be alone without any company. In other time I talk to people, go out and enjoy with friends. Again most of the time I like be alone doing what I like to do.
patkai 9y ago
"unhelpfully pathologise the feeling that EVERYONE has" You may just have stumbled upon a new definition of extrovert, i.e. a person who finds this distinction meaningless. I'm half joking, but most people I know have a pretty consistent level of extra-intraversion.
- stevedonovan 9y ago
  It's a bit of a cats and dogs problem - there's mutual incomprehension. An introvert's nightmare is when the dogs judge the cat show - e.g. modern justifications for open-plan working environments.
  - johnminter 9y ago
    IMHO this is the most apt description in the thread :)

adamnemecek 9y ago

Sure, but while I do agree that the neurological differences might be non-existent, I think that if you were to plot the amount of time people spend in social setting, you'd get something like a normal distribution. You could designate one end as introverts and one as extroverts.

alexvy86 9y ago
Exactly this. And if I might nitpick a bit, I'd say "the amount of time people WANT to spend in social settings". Which would probably correlate well to the actual time spent in such settings, but to me the heart of the matter is that some people just aren't look for it, while others are.
sliverstorm 9y ago
That's important though. It's probably a normal distribution. Not some crazy bimodal or something.

sseagull 9y ago

> The idea of introverts and extraverts being distinct groups of people with completely different neurological responses to social situations is a largely false one Why would you say that? Even perusing the wikipedia article shows that there is at least some evidence for a biological basis, and that it is being researched. Maybe it's not up to your standards, but it's far from being settled as a bunch of 'woo' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraversion_and_introversion#Biological_factors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraversion_and_introversion#...

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
131012 9y ago
Have you read the article? It defends the original position you quote, especially in the case of jungian psychology and myer-briggs model. Everytime you hear someone saying you can divide the world in two separate categories, you can know that the vision it creates is blurry at best. Juste like saying pi = 2. It's technically not wrong, but a rather useless info.

woodandsteel 9y ago

>The idea of introverts and extraverts being distinct groups of people with completely different neurological responses to social situations is a largely false one Are you saying it is possible there are neurological differences, but it hasn't been proven? Or are you saying it has been proven that there are no neurological differences? I could be wrong, but my best guess is that you are not familiar with this area of science, much less science in general, and made that claim for reasons having more to do with your personal philosophy. Am I right?

ZenoArrow 9y ago
> "Or are you saying it has been proven that there are no neurological differences?" Beware of confirmation bias. If you've convinced yourself something exists, and discover some patterns in data that line up with previous beliefs, that will be classed as evidence even without understanding what those patterns truly represent.

pks016 9y ago

I agree with that based on my personal experience so far.Sometimes I want to be alone not being disturbed or interrupted by other people.But my friends will think that something happened to me, in reality I just want to be alone without any company. In other time I talk to people, go out and enjoy with friends. Again most of the time I like be alone doing what I like to do.

patkai 9y ago

"unhelpfully pathologise the feeling that EVERYONE has" You may just have stumbled upon a new definition of extrovert, i.e. a person who finds this distinction meaningless. I'm half joking, but most people I know have a pretty consistent level of extra-intraversion.

stevedonovan 9y ago
It's a bit of a cats and dogs problem - there's mutual incomprehension. An introvert's nightmare is when the dogs judge the cat show - e.g. modern justifications for open-plan working environments.
- johnminter 9y ago
  IMHO this is the most apt description in the thread :)