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1 " In a study of 132 collegestudents at Humboldt University in Berlin,the psychologists Jens Aspendorfand Susanne Wilpers set out to understandthe effect of different personalitytraits on students’ relationships withtheir peers and families. They focusedon the so-called Big Five traits:Introversion-Extroversion; Agreeableness;Openness to Experience; Conscientiousness;and Emotional Stability.(Many personality psychologists believethat human personality can be boileddown to these five characteristics.)Aspendorf and Wilpers predicted thatthe extroverted students would have aneasier time striking up new friendshipsthan the introverts, and this was indeedthe case. But if the introverts were trulyantisocial and extroverts pro-social,then you’d suppose that the studentswith the most harmonious relationshipswould also be highest in extroversion.And this was not the case at all. Instead,the students whose relationshipswere freest of conflict had high scoresfor agreeableness. Agreeable people arewarm, supportive, and loving; personalitypsychologists have found that if yousit them down in front of a computerscreen of words, they focus longer thanothers do on words like caring, console,and help, and a shorter time on wordslike abduct, assault, and harass. Introvertsand extroverts are equally likelyto be agreeable; there is no correlationbetween extroversion and agreeableness.This explains why some extrovertslove the stimulation of socializing butdon’t get along particularly well withthose closest to them. "
― Susain Cain
