- Welcome to an FJ News special report.
I'm David Muir. (dramatic music)
Several shocking studies are coming out talking about
how introverts are not doing as well
during the pandemic as extroverts are.
This flies in the face of conventional wisdom
and all the jokes we were telling
at the beginning of quarantine when we were like,
"Oh yeah, the introverts, they're gonna love this, man.
This is what they were made for,
just being at home alone all the time."
How naive we were back in March. (chuckles)
I remember saying, "Yeah, this will be over by July."
Not really.
So yeah, extroverts are doing better
during this lockdown according to the data.
And as we know, hips don't lie and neither does data.
But it's an interesting question to ask,
why are the introverts doing poorly
compared to extroverts during this time?
When we all thought at the beginning of it,
the extroverts would be going crazy,
going effin' crazy 'cause they can't get out,
they can't hang out with people.
Whereas introverts, this whole thing
is very on brand for them, you know, staying at home,
doesn't seem like it would be a big deal.
A lot of what it comes down to
is that all humans need connection with other humans.
We all need to feel like we are part of
some kind of relationship, you know, friendship,
family, a romantic relationship.
We define ourselves as humans based on the people around us.
So being isolated, even if you're an introvert,
is not a good thing for your mental health.
And really, the difference between introverts and extroverts
is how much social contact you can put up with
because everyone needs the connection.
But in terms of getting together with the people
and how meaningful that connection is
and how many people are there,
that's really what separates the introverts
from the extroverts.
So it doesn't mean introverts never needed
any kind of human connection.
Because of that, the extroverts are much more willing
and likely to reach out to other people in other ways
since they can't get together in person as much
through the phone, through setting up
those annoying Zoom happy hours and all that,
the extroverts are the ones saying, "Hey, let me do this.
Let me have some more contact and connection with people,"
where the introverts,
they don't enjoy doing that stuff as much,
so they're more likely to not reach out.
They're more likely to just stay cloistered at home.
One interesting thing when it comes
to the five factor model, the big five,
and extroversion, the extroversion scale,
is that as a person gets more extroverted along that scale,
they also become more likely to engage
in impulsive or risky behavior.
And so whatever a person's perceived risk is
during this pandemic,
the extroverted ones are more likely to be like,
"Yeah, whatever," and so they might just not bother
with social distancing or staying apart from people,
so they're getting their socializing a lot of times anyway
despite of whatever lockdown there is.
Whereas on the other hand, the introverts are like,
"Yeah, okay, that seems risky. Not gonna do that.
I'll just stay at home. That's okay.
I'll just drink a bottle of wine by myself. It's fine."
Mental health also comes into this.
Not to say that extroverts can't get depressed
or anxious or whatever,
but it seems like introverts are the ones
that when they're dealing with this,
and this is what some of the studies seem to suggest,
that when introverts are dealing with mental health issues,
they're more likely to withdraw even more.
And during a pandemic where we're all closed off
from each other, that's really bad.
It's like compounding the withdrawal
because if it was a normal time
and an introvert was having a difficult time,
they'd still have to go to work,
they still would see family and friends
at least a little bit, or would be more likely to,
or at least have the option to do it.
But during this time, as introverts may be dealing
with the onset of depression in many ways
because of this lack of connection with others
and when they are experiencing heightened anxiety,
because of what's going on in the world,
they are just super withdrawn because there's no...
People aren't just dropping by the house to say hello.
They're not going to work and having their coworkers say,
"Hey, are you okay?"
It's like the introverts under house arrest right now
are constantly in the mode of recharging their battery
but they haven't used it at all.
The social battery isn't being used,
it's just being constantly recharged.
And if we wanna take that metaphor to an absurd place,
it's like how they say,
"Don't just leave your laptop plugged in all the time
with the battery charging constantly
because it will wear down the battery."
The battery needs to be used.
It needs to go from 100 to 0 and back again
for it to get its full lifespan.
I think. I might be wrong.
I'll have to check with my technical correspondent
who's over there.
He says he doesn't know either.
That's all I've got for this special report of FJ News.
I've been your host, David Muir.
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And until next week, have a good week.
I said the word week twice and now I feel silly.
And if you look down below, you can get this mug,
which looks pretty cool.