How Introverts Secretly Hold Back Their Extroverted Colleagues

Introverted employees may have it out for their more outgoing peers, according to researchers at Oregon State University, the University of Florida, and University of Notre Dame. Not only are introverts more likely to rate extroverted colleagues as worse performers at work, they’re less likely to give them credit.

“The magnitude with which introverts underrated performance of extroverts was surprising,” said Dr. Keith Leavitt, an assistant professor at OSU’s College of Business and study co-author, in a release. “The results were very consistent across both studies.”

This notion that introverts’ personalities could have such an impact at work spurred the researchers to investigate further. They decided to hold two studies.

In the first, 178 students were each assigned to a four- or five-person project team for the semester, then asked to complete questionnaires about their team members midway through the term. Additionally, they were asked to share thoughts on how they got along as a team, as well as their own personalities.

To the researchers’ surprise, introverted team members rated other introverts higher than extroverts, while the extroverts didn’t seem to be influenced by the personalities of their teammates at all. Could it be that introverts are more sensitive? 

Read the entire story on the Inc. website.