Why introverts can't always tell who likes them: multitasking and nonverbal decoding.
Despite personality theories suggesting that extraversion correlates with social skill, most studies have not found a positive correlation between extraversion and nonverbal decoding. The authors propose that introverts are less able to multitask and thus are poorer at nonverbal decoding, but only when it is a secondary task. Prior research has uniformly extracted the nonverbal decoding from its multitasking context and, consequently, never tested this hypothesis. In Studies 1-3, introverts exhibited a nonverbal decoding deficit, relative to extraverts, but only when decoding was a secondary rather than a primary task within a multitasking context. In Study 4, extraversion was found to correlate with central executive efficiency (r = .42) but not with storage capacity (r = .04). These results are discussed in terms of arousal theories of extraversion and the role of catecholamines (dopamine and norepinephrine) in prefrontal function.
Lieberman
M D
MD
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, USA. lieber@ucla.edu
Rosenthal
R
R
D001143:Arousal; D001288:Attention; D002395:Catecholamines / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007439:Introversion, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009448:Neurochemistry; D009633:Nonverbal Communication; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012938:Social Perception; D013637:Tape Recording; D014705:Verbal Behavior
D002395:Catecholamines