Bias Against Introverts

I read an interview with Susan Cain, an author who criticizes how society nowadays latently value extroversion as a way to achieve success. She said that in America, institutions now are brainwashed with the idea and value of working well with other people. One factor, she said, is that humans are such "social animals" that when simply being with others, we are just much of ourselves anymore. We change at least a bit with other people.

Of course we are not really concerned with this issue given that it is not as delicious and scandalous as prejudice against a certain race, or gender, or sexual preference, and so on. But, Susan said that statistically, one-third of individuals are introverts (maybe in America and I need to find the number for population in Malaysia), and that's quite a lot. So, whether we like it or not, it happens, and without we realizing it, introverts sometimes find it difficult to work in certain situations.

Please note the differences between shyness, people who are afraid of social rejection, and introverts, people who find it more comfortable being in a situations where they are only around close friends, family, or just by themselves. Introverts like it when they are at home sitting on a chair with a partner, for example, reading a book, or watching a movie. The calmer, the better. It's just a pattern of personality whose existence various institutions in this world need to recognize.

I still remember an assignment given by one of my lecturers in IIUM, Dr. Alizi, who taught Forensic Psychology at that time, he gave us the freedom to do the assignment individually or in group. Some people wanted to do it in group and some individually. I, of course, chose to work alone. I think this is one of the best way to deal with the various personalities can find among our students, especially if it is related to introversion and extroversion.

As you can figure out, I'm an introvert myself. I understand the feeling when your lecturer gave a group assignment, especially when noone in the classroom was someone you were comfortable working with. But I survived, so did/do/will a lot of other introverts I believe. Although introverts need to do whatever they should to survive and be successful in this extroversion-oriented world, this doesn't mean we can take it for granted, because time after time, we'll find a group of people, as Susan called as "pretend extroverts," and the name speaks for itself.