Your personality is more complicated than you think

Alexandria Meurgue Ritter, speech language pathologist, Dr. Abana Azariah, attending physician, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, clinical chief, Disorders of Consciousness program UT Health Houston/TIRR Memorial Hermann and Dr. Gabriel Rodriquez, clinical neuropsychologist TIRR Memorial Hermann, refer to a model of the human brain, Monday, March 25, 2024, as they discuss the nature of an injury and treatment of a patient following a severe brain injury and recently diagnosed with GAAB syndrome at TIRR Memorial Hermann in Houston. | Kirk Sides/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images

Introvert. Extrovert. Type A. Type 3. A Samantha. These days, it seems, there is an ever-expanding list of terms and frameworks for describing our personalities. But what we see in ourselves, and what other people see in us, are often not the same.

So when LaDel, a listener to Explain It to Me — Vox’s weekly call-in podcast — asked a question about “introverts,” our curiosity was piqued. “I was seeing people I know who I wouldn’t consider to be introverts proclaiming that they were,” they said. “I’m like, ‘Wow, you’re out every weekend, swinging from chandeliers. You’re probably not an introvert.’ But I’m not so arrogant that I feel like I can tell anyone what their temperament is.”

But, is LaDel right that more people are describing themselves as introverts? According to personality researcher and University of Kentucky psychology professor Shannon Sauer-Zavala, the........

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