Why your International student applicants won't brag

 Here are a few further excerpts from the excellent summaries, provided by the book reporter:

Cain begins her account by way of establishing that Western culture has increasingly adopted an ‘Extrovert Ideal,’ in which louder, bolder, more effervescent and risk-friendly individuals are valued over and above the quieter, more reserved, contemplative and heed-friendly ones. While Western culture has a long history of favoring the extrovert, Cain argues that this bias has steepened since the industrial revolution, and particularly in the past century as the West has become ever-more urbanized and commercial. Over the course of this time-frame, Cain argues, a Culture of Personality, perhaps best represented by the motivational guru Tony Robbins, has come to replace a Culture of Character, best represented by such figures as Abraham Lincoln.

Cain’s intention here is not to put-down extroverts, or to say that they are inferior to introverts. Rather, her argument is that the latter have an important role to play in many areas of society that is now often being overlooked. For one, the introvert’s greater willingness to listen to others and their input makes them better leaders than is generally recognized. Second, their heed-friendly temperaments serves to better protect them against dangerous situations, and makes them particularly valuable in such professions as financial investing, where undue risk is not only known to get individuals in trouble, but entire nations, and even the entire international community. Third, the fact that introverts tend to have a heightened moral sense makes them well-suited to fill the role of the social conscience of society, which is often valuable in protecting the downtrodden, and also in saving societies from their own recklessness.

Finally, the added thoughtfulness and persistence of introverts, and their heightened capacity to work independently, often gives them an edge in creative enterprises such as art and technological innovation, as well as in more intellectual industries such as science and engineering. Indeed, Cain insists that there is plenty of evidence to indicate that working independently is an important part of having and developing the best ideas, not only for introverts but for everyone. This helps explain why the most creative people tend to be introverted, and also serves as an argument in favor of tempering the emphasis on groupthink and collaborative work that is currently running rampant through our schools and businesses.

Listen to Susan Cain's own discussion of her book: 

Lastly, I want to finish up with the chapter on The ‘Extrovert Ideal’ and It’s Early History in the West as summarized by the book reporter: 

Cain begins her argument by way of establishing that Western culture has a distinct bias towards the extrovert—what she calls the ‘Extrovert Ideal’. According to the Extrovert Ideal, it is a virtue to be talkative, sociable, lively, action-oriented and risk-friendly. On the other hand, it is a weakness to be reticent, withdrawn, serious, contemplation-oriented and heed-friendly. As Cain puts it, “we live with a value system that I call the Extrovert Ideal—the omnipresent belief that the ideal self is gregarious, alpha, and comfortable in the spotlight. The archetypal extrovert prefers action to contemplation, risk-taking to heed-taking, certainty to doubt. He favors quick decisions, even at the risk of being wrong. She works well in teams and socializes in groups” (p. 4).

The Extrovert Ideal is not a given. Indeed, as Cain points out, other cultures, and particularly that of East Asia, are often much more respectful of the quiet type. For instance, a study comparing eight to ten-year-old children from China and Canada found that “shy and sensitive children are shunned by their peers in Canada but make sought after playmates in China” (p. 187). The cultural difference here is also manifest in adolescents, as “Chinese high school students tell researchers that they prefer friends who are ‘humble’ and ‘altruistic,’ ‘honest’ and ‘hardworking,’ while American high school students seek out the ‘cheerful,’ ‘enthusiastic,’ and ‘sociable’” (p. 187). What’s more, shy and sensitive children in China “are also more likely than other children to be considered for leadership roles. Chinese children who are sensitive and reticent are said to bedongshi (understanding), a common term of praise” (p. 187). In the West, as we shall soon see, thing are far different.

For Cain, the West’s preference for the extrovert has a long history. Indeed, for her, signs of it can be seen as far back as ancient Greece: “we can... trace our admiration of extroverts to the Greeks, for whom oratory was an exalted skill” (p. 29). When it comes to the United States, one of the most extroverted places on the planet (p. 4, 186), the preference for the ‘man of action’ and the mistrust of the ‘man of contemplation’ can be seen from the very founding of the nation (p. 30). This makes a good deal of sense when we consider that America’s independence was forged out of a battle with their aristocratic forbears: “early Americans revered action and were suspicious of intellect, associating the life of the mind with the languid, ineffectual European aristocracy they left behind” (p. 30).

Of course, one factor that may help explain why the West has always had an accentuated respect and admiration for extroverts may be because its populations are naturally more extroverted than others. This does make sense given that the populations of the West are made up more of migrants than other cultures (p. 29). This is especially true of Americans, of course, but is also more so the case with Europeans than either Asians or Africans (in which latter cultures the trait for extroversion has been found to be less prevalent) (p. 29).  As some researchers have pointed out, those willing to migrate require a mentality more associated with the extrovert, with their added willingness to take risks; “it makes sense, say these researchers, that world travelers were more extroverted than those who stayed home—and that they passed on their traits to their children and their children’s children.” In other words, because the extroverted were more likely to migrate than the introverted, and because extroversion is partially heritable, the populations that these migrants spawned were also naturally more extroverted, leading to a gene pool that was shifted somewhat towards the extroverted side.