Quiet - The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
by Susan Cain

Introverts in our western societies are considered less valued than extroverts: they tend to not get heard over the din of a culture that values those who think with their mouth.  Susan Cain has written a excellent in-depth look at the history, evolution, psychology, of introversion and provides some advice for both introverts and extroverts in communicating effectively with their counterparts.

Cain, a strong introvert, raised by two introverts, went to Princeton, and Harvard Law school. She became a  key negotiator for her law firm, and learned the power of her own introversion; she spent the past 7 years researching and writing this book.

Our preference for extroversion is ingrained starting from school: "This style of teaching reflects the business community," one fifth grade teacher told her, "where people's respect for others is based on their verbal abilities, not their originality or insight.  You have to be someone who speaks well and calls attention to your self.  It's an elitism based on something other than merit."  (77)

Intoverts can concentrate and focus for extended periods better.  Research psychologist Anders Ericsson, in trying to find out what makes someone who achieves great talent different, did a study in which expert  violiinists at the Music Academy in West Berlin were ranked by their professors.  Then Ericsson surveyed the violinists to see how much time they spent practicing.  Those ranked highest spent the most time practicing alone.  He attributed their excellence not to an innate talent, but the ability to continue to concentrate in what he called deliberate practice.

"Deliberate practice is best conducted alone for several reasons.  It take intense concentration, and other people can be distracting.  It requires deep motivation, often self-generated.  But most important, it involves working on the task that's most challenging to you personally.  Only when you're alone, Ericsson told me, can you 'go directly to the part that's challenging to you.  If you want to improve what you're doing you have to be the one who generates the move.  Imagine a group class -- you're the one generating the move only a small percentage of the time.' " (81) 

In 1956, Solomon Asch did a famous experiment in which he had volunteers take a simple test.  The questions were so simple that the average was 95 percent. Next, a group of similar volunteers took the test in a group setting.  Unknown to the volunteers, actors had been planted in the group, and they confidently gave the same incorrect answer.  The test subject's correct responses in this group setting plummeted to 25 percent.  A 2005 follow up study revealed that the subjects did not think they had been influenced by the others: they believed that they had arrived at their answers spontaneously and independently.  This phenomenon has informally become known as groupthink.  For those who gave correct answers despite the group's influence, FMRI scans showed both the frontal cortex (reasoning) and amygdala (upsetting emotions such as the fear of rejection) were more active than for those who went along with the group.  Researchers postulated those who went along with the group suppressed some reasoning and those went counter to the group experienced the "pain of independence".  (92).