Enacted Extraversion

The concepts of introversion and extraversion were developed by Carl Jung as part of his larger conception of Personality Theory. In essence, an introvert is said to recharge their psychological batteries by being alone, while an extravert is said to be refueled in the presence of other people. These are very superficial definitions, but the important takeaway is that these terms are used to delineate between two extremes of socialization preference.

Some evidence suggests, however, that even introverts will sometimes benefit from acting like extraverts, in the sense of going out of their way to be more social (rather than going with their default inclination to be less social).

The idea is that while it’s good to recharge one’s psychological battery when necessary, human beings tend to derive fulfillment from interaction and connection with other human beings.

Chatting with a stranger on the train or calling a friend on the phone might seem burdensome and exhausting, maybe even anxiety-inducing, but people who force themselves to do such things tend to report far better outcomes than they expected, often saying they enjoyed the conversation (or other social activity) and indicating they’d like to do more of the same in the future.

There’s evidence, too, that more extraversion in one’s life tends to lead to greater levels of psychological wellbeing even decades later. Extraversion is strongly associated with positive affect (having a generally upbeat demeanor), and positive affect is strongly associated with feeling generally good, fulfilled, and happy, all of which is overall healthful (in addition to being enjoyable).

So even introverts (or people who are just not feeling particularly social) will tend to benefit from what’s called “Enacted Extraversion”—acting as if they’re extraverted and feeling social, even when they’re not—as it can grant them an immediate sense of enhanced well-being sparked by connection with another people.

There will of course be exceptions to this tendency, and this doesn’t mean people who are inclined toward introversion need to act against their default social bias all the time.

It does, however, suggest that there’s a chance certain types of negative affect (feeling low) might be addressed, and relatively quickly, by asking oneself what an extravert would do, and then trying to do that for a little while.