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Introverts Have More Brain Activity?

* * Beatles-Beatles writes to tell us Yahoo News is reporting that introverted individuals tend to have more brain activity in general, specifically in the frontal lobe. From the article: "The attitude that there's something wrong with introverted people is widely shared in society, where fast talk and snap decisions are often valued over listening, deliberation and careful planning. Extroverts seem to rule the world or, at least, the USA, which hasn't elected an introverted president for three decades, since Jimmy Carter."

6 of 757 comments (clear)

  1. Submitter is a link spammer, does /. care? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm recycling a comment from another AC in another Scuttlemonkey/**Beatles-Beatles post. This guy's getting worse than Roland Picklepail:

    Am I the only person who has noticed the numerous stories that get posted by *--Beatles-Beatles? Am I also the only person who has noticed that the link used in is name is a constantly changing URL (depending on the story) with pointers to various scammy sites? Is it not obvious what he's doing? He's using the awesome PageRank of slashdot do promote his sites based on searches that have the word Beatles in them.

    It's a small price to pay for free advertising. Find a story, summarize it in 5 minutes, post to slashdot, and get a pagerank boost that advertisers would pay hundreds (or maybe thousands) for. (Text links on high-ranking sites is big business - just ask oreilly).

    Slashdot should at least put a ref=nofollow in the links to submitters (or better yet, only link the submitter's name to his/her user page).


    In closing, a quick bit of WHOIS shows that all the sites linked by **B-B are registered to Carl Fogle. Carl, cut this crap out.

  2. Fast talker by vik · · Score: 5, Informative

    "...fast talk and snap decisions are often valued over listening, deliberation and careful planning..."

    Maybe on your side of the pond, mate.

    Vik :v)

  3. Reminds Me... by Llywelyn · · Score: 5, Informative

    A while back I read an article in The Atlantic titled "Caring for Your Introvert" by Jonathan Rauch. Absolutely great piece.

    --
    Integrate Keynote and LaTeX
  4. Perhaps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    A book, "The Introvert Advantage", delves with great detail into the differences between introverts and extroverts.

    More information here: http://www.theintrovertadvantage.com/

    Here's a quick bit from the site:
    Are You One?
    We all use both our introverted and extroverted skills, but we are hard wired to be more one than the other. Look at the lists below and determine which one feels more like YOU!

    Not every aspect will fit exactly for you because we are all unique. If you don't feel like you fit one side more than the other, even by 51% to 49%, then ask yourself this question: If there is an emergency do you tend to stand still and feel somewhat shutdown or in slow motion? If you have a standstill reaction to stress more often, then you are probably an introvert. In a crisis do you tend to move your body immediately and feel like taking action, maybe without pausing to think? Then you are probably an extrovert if you react with movement. Under stress we can experience our innate temperament. Look over the two lists and think about how you ARE, not as you'd like to be. If your still uncertain, as a last ditch effort, ask someone you trust and who is honest to read these and suggest which one sounds more like you.

    Introverts:
    • Enjoy time alone
    • Consider only deep relationships as friends
    • Feel drained after outside activities, even if they were fun
    • Good listener
    • Appear calm and self-contained
    • Think then speak or act


    Extroverts:
    • Like to be in the thick of things
    • Relish variety
    • Know lots of people, considers lots of people friends
    • Enjoy chit-chatting, even to strangers
    • Feel stoked after activity
    • Speak or act then think OR think while speaking


    I recommend this book if you think you are or know somebody that you think is indeed an introvert, as this book says alot about what an introvert is and what the article briefly describes.
  5. Re:Two things by ZachPruckowski · · Score: 5, Informative

    I could be in a minority, but I almost never look at author links. I didn't notice this one until I saw your post. Maybe this isn't as much of an issue as you think it is.

    It's not you the message is intended for, it's Google. Google ranks sites at least partially (and primarily) by a method designed to determine the usefullness of a site based on links. Links from some sites count for more than others. Because /. is so huge, we can have a major Google impact. Having your site linked to from /. helps it, esp. if it is linked with a relevant keyword, and being linked to in an article is a huge deal.

  6. Re:Well, duh... by Raffaello · · Score: 5, Informative

    Not directed just at you, though I am replying to you, but I think the definitions of introvert and extravert as used in psychology need to be clarified here.

    First put forward by Freud and greatly elaborated by Jung neither introvert nor extravert necessarily determines skills at either thinking or socializing. Both have to do with which mode of behavior a person finds energizing and which s/he finds draining. Because of this energizing/draining aspect it is likely, though by no means guaranteed that introverts will be drawn more to reflection and therefore become more skilled thinkers, planners, visualizers, etc than they are socializers. Conversely it is more likely, though not assured, that extraverts will become more skilled socializers than they are thinkers, visualizers, etc.

    An introvert finds that directing attention inwardly (hence the term into (inward) vert (to turn)) comes easily and is energizing, while directing attention outward (for example, in social gatherings) is draining. This does not mean that introverts cannot be good at socializing. It is just that doing so is an effort. They then need alone time to recover from the socializing.

    An extrovert finds that directing attention outward (hence the term extro (outward) vert (to turn)) comes easily and is energizing, but directing attention inwardly (for example reflecting on feelings or past experiences) is draining. The extrovert can become quite skilled at this interior focus but s/he will need some social time to recover from it, just as the introvert will need alone time to recover from the perceived drain of socializing.

    So both types can behave in both ways. Their behavior is not what defines them as introverts or extroverts. What defines them as one type or the other is how they respond to these two spheres of activity - inward looking and outward looking - by finding one energizing, one draining, one coming easily and one requiring an effort.