Why don’t introverts break laws?
Introverts are twice as law-abiding as extroverts says new data from our large-scale personality tests
Introverts are twice as law-abiding as extroverts says new data from our large-scale personality tests
Q: Why don’t introverts break laws?
A: Because they don’t want to.
At Knozen, we’ve collected 30+ million answers to our personality and behavioral quizzes from 1+ mm people over the past two years.
We’ve asked users questions about their friends…
“Who’s more likely to give a random compliment? Taylor or Kris?”
…as well as about themselves…
“Do you think you are an unconventional person?”
(No joke — exactly 50.09% of people answer ‘yes’ to this question. Go figure.)
Knozen’s data is one of the largest cross-validated datasets of answers on personality today.
All different personality types use Knozen, but the most avid and active in sharing their personality charts on social media have tended to be the introverts. It’s no surprise that a format like ours which allows for self-exploration in solitude would appeal to the introverted.
So we decided to dig in to the data and ask: “What sets the introverted apart? And what other personality traits or characteristics are associated with introversion?”
First we decided to look at the data for those identified by others to be more introverted, and examine their own answers to questions about shyness, sociability, and outgoingness.
As expected, those identified by others as introverted felt themselves to be quiet (92%), shy (91%), and reserved (86%). They also felt they were not extroverted (6%), outgoing (17%) or ‘people people’ (21%).
Do extroverts answer differently? Indeed they do. Their high bars are almost the complete opposite:
Those identified by others as extroverted felt themselves to be social (97%), outgoing (93%) and ‘people people’ (91%). And they felt they were not introverted or quiet (20%), nor were they shy (24%).
As expected, the size difference between the answers of the introverted and the extroverted are large and consistent. There’s a 68 percentage point gap between these answers on average, ranging from the smallest “Do you think you are a reserved person?” at 44% to the largest “Do you think you are an extrovert?” at 78%.
Next, we sorted all answers based on how differently introverts and extroverts answered, and what we found did surprise us. Again and again, questions related to being law-abiding, civic-minded or behaving anti-socially popped up as having huge differences.
Here are the answers of those identified by others as introverts:
Introverts love a quiet weekend, don’t mind waiting quietly and obey all the traffic rules. They don’t drink, fight or speed in public.
Compare those answers to those of people identified by their friends as extroverts:
The extroverted don’t mind bending rules, staring right at you, and consider themselves fighters and rebels.
Lining up the differences is revealing:
Across these ten questions, the introverted showed more caring behavior, more socially acceptable behavior (ironically enough), and a lower desire to do things that could embarrass, inconvenience, or harm others. Overall, when it came to doing the right thing for the community, introverts indicated a desire to do the right thing 55% of the time, extroverts 25%. In other words, introverts are twice as law-abiding, civic-minded, and socially-caring than the extroverts among us.
And that’s what really stood out for us: a desire for others to respect your own privacy matched up perfectly with a desire to respect others’ privacy, person, and safety in return.
It turns out that your extrovert really does need training.
While the directly observable behaviors of introversion — a tendency to live within your own head, a greater enjoyment of solitary pursuits, a preference for private discussion — have been well-studied and remarked upon, these secondary effects of introversion have not.
How and why the characteristics that lead one to deep mental pursuits and to avoid crowded social situations also lead to not interfering with others and a respect for the rules and decorum of society will make for interesting conversations. There’s a lot of productive work and discussion that can be done on this theme.
And perhaps we can begin by encouraging our so very extrovert-friendly society that the merits and advantages of inward strength deserve celebration as well.
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