It’s more aligned with creativity, or thinking outside the box.Ĭreativity is definitely celebrated more than it was. Its doppelgänger, divergent thinking, is the ability to generate novel ideas and conjure up multiple solutions to a problem. Researchers who study thought often refer to a couple of different varieties, which are complements of one another: Convergent thinking is being able to channel the information you have at your disposal to arrive a single correct answer, and it’s the type that’s championed in many education systems, and rewarded in standardized testing. And based on the studies, there seem to be some very real psychological and physical benefits of neuroticism.
Certainly, lots of brilliant and highly creative people throughout history have been famous neurotics, and while this isn’t proof that neuroticism leads to success, it certainly doesn’t hurt the argument. Neuroticism has been linked to intelligence, but because there may be other mediating factors in the connection, it’s harder to make that claim. This may be because they’re less likely to let routine care fall by the wayside, and more likely to seek medical care when something does go wrong. Another study, just last month, found that neurotic people may live longer, having a lower risk of death from all causes, including cancer. And this suggestion seems to be borne out by brain science. Additionally, a study a couple of years ago suggested that neuroticism is actually linked to creativity, since turning an idea around and around in your head might make you more likely to have a creative breakthrough. Neuroticism makes you more conscientious for one, since you’re less likely to let things slip your mind or miss a deadline. (Full disclosure, I’m a tad neurotic, so this entry may be biased.) Provided you have some degree of self-awareness around it, and have taken some steps to get ahold of it, it can provide some very real benefits in life and work. But, in addition to its intrinsic comedic potential, neuroticism isn’t actually such a bad one to have. Neuroticism isn’t generally thought of as the most attractive trait, and neurotic people tend to get a lot of grief for it. If you embrace your introversion unapologetically, it can be a big benefit to yourself and those around you.
And if you’re an introvert who has to work as part of a team, make sure you get the alone time you need to do your best work. (Here’s her TEDx talk, in which she expands on this.)Ī big portion of the population can personally attest to the fact that introversion is by no means a disadvantage-it can be a great advantage, particularly if you’re an entrepreneur, an artist, a tech genius, or in any other business where thinking or creating off on your own is a given. As Cain says, we should allow introverts the freedom and the environment to do what they do best: Think deeply on their own, and come together with others in the office or classroom spontaneously, rather than mandatorily. Extroverts feel energized by being in stimulating social situations, whereas introverts tend to get overstimulated by these setups, and need some alone time to reenergize.īut given the creative and intellectual prowess of introverts, everyone might benefit if we reevaluated our attitudes, and school and office setups. It’s important to point out that introversion isn’t a matter of being “quiet” or “shy”: Rather, the “version” continuum is more about the type of situations from which you draw energy. Here are a few of the traits that can actually help us out, if we allow them to. Introversion and neuroticism are great examples of this, but even having ADHD or going through painful life circumstances can ultimately push us in good ways. Even traits that are mostly thought of as negative can provide benefit, either because they’re correlated with other, more positive traits or because there’s inherent benefit in the “negative” trait itself. Research is increasingly showing what many of us know intuitively: That there’s often a lot value in our weirdnesses. While personal growth and working on our flaws are definitely beneficial, there are ways in which we shouldn’t try to stamp out our quirks too much-rather, we should learn to peaceably coexist with them. Perhaps you’re aware of being overly anal about a certain area of your life, or maybe your friends are frustrated with your habit of suddenly canceling plans because you just need some alone time.
Most of us have some aspect of our personalities that we’re not crazy about, and maybe even see as a hindrance.
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