Study Indicates Extroverts Have Fewer Friends Than We All Think They Do

Most people assume that extroverts are more popular because of their outgoing personalities and raw passion for well-planned social events. But the problem is this: they only socialize with certain people, which affect their views on life. Yes. A new study found that introverts are more realistic than extroverts when it comes to their outlook of the world.

Social media has a major impact on how we interpret people. Sadly, this doesn’t work. Mostly because people’s profiles tend to only portray them positively — leaving us with a false perception of their (general) reality.

But given that extroverts are particular about who they befriend, the outcome is a skewed depiction of reality — limited to that which is on their news feeds!
 
A study published in Psychological Science had 284 MBA students complete a personality behavior questionnaire; the results showed that extroverts have their head in the clouds due to a “friendship paradox.”

Meaning they believe they have more friends than they actually do. Social networks serve as a great example of this. You may have thousands of Facebook friends, but how many of them do you actually hang out with? Have physical ties and bonds to? Not too many, right?
Another interesting finding is that extroverts’ false bias leads to their social networks being overpopulated with extroverts and under populated with introverts. This bias wasn’t as prevalent amongst introverts.

Not cool, extroverts! Don’t cut introverts out. They not only make great friends, but they’re awesome lovers.

This post originally appeared at YourTango.