You might think that you’re an introvert or an extrovert, but the odds are that you’re actually an ambivert (hi!). Most people around the world are ambiverts, with both introverted and extroverted qualities. Though true introverts and extroverts do exist, they are fairly rare.
As Jens Asendorpf, a personality researcher at Humboldt University of Berlin, explained to Scientific American, around 90% of people are “somewhere in the middle.”
According to Asendorpf, even someone who is extroverted and enjoys being very social also needs some privacy and alone time once in a while. “And since everyone needs social contact, introverts also seek interaction with others—just less so.”
Whether you’re an introvert, ambivert, or extrovert, you’re very likely to vibe with the memes we’re featuring here because the situations are almost universally relatable. We all have moments when we’re not feeling as social as we’d like to be or think that we should be. And there is nothing wrong with spending some time alone to recharge.
However, there is one small issue. It’s quite hard to definitively draw a clear line between all of these different ways of categorizing people’s personalities. “There is no magic line that clearly separates ambiversion from introversion and extroversion,” Scott Barry Kaufman, a psychologist, told Scientific American.
“You could create even more subcategories—for example, mild extroversion and mild introversion.”
Each personality category has its upsides and downsides. “There is no hierarchy of goodness when it comes to personality traits,” Kaufman stresses.
That being said, society as a whole tends to value outgoing (aka extroverted) behaviors more.
Generally speaking, ambiverted people tend to have a more flexible mindset than introverts and extroverts. This can help them out in everyday life. They can spend their free time being super social or spending some quiet time at home by themselves, and it doesn’t bother them either way.
Furthermore, ambiverts manage to strike a good balance between the pros of both introverts and extroverts. They can be enthusiastic and assertive without being overconfident or too excited. What’s more, they are more adaptable and willing to listen to other people and take their interests into account. This is very useful at work and in leadership positions.
In a workplace leadership setting, being ambiverted can give you a significant advantage because you can combine the benefits of both introversion and extraversion.
The issue with many extroverts is that, even though they seem like natural leaders and inspire others, they tend to speak more than they listen.
Meanwhile, introverted leaders attend more to their employees and give them more room for their successes. However, they might not be as inspiring as their extroverted colleagues.
