Over the years, there has been a lot of discussions concerning the psychology of ambivert people. Even I’m quite sure that from the very moment you have become familiar with the word introvert, you want to know whether you are an ambivert or not.
Actually, we claim to be introvert or extrovert mostly, but a huge number of us fall somewhere in the middle, which we call ambivert.
Adam Grant’s Study about Ambiversion:
Adam Grant at Wharton did an all-inclusive research on ambiversion. He found that two-thirds of the people are not really introverts or extroverts. They are ambiverts; they have both introverted and extroverted tendencies at a time in their personality.
Another interesting fact about Grant’s research is it has disproved the well-known notion that we put as a tag, extroverts, on the best-performing salespeople. Grant’s study found out something different. According to Grant’s finding, it is ambiverison, that outperformed all other groups. He found that ambiverts possess a greater social flexibility with which they were able to outsell all other groups; they moved 51% more product per hour than the average salesperson
According to Grant, sales increased as extroversion increased, peaking with those who were just moderately extroverted. You can notice this in the finding of Grant below.
Grant explained his finding this way:
“Because they naturally engage in a flexible pattern of talking and listening, ambiverts are likely to express sufficient assertiveness and enthusiasm to persuade and close a sale, but are more inclined to listen to customers’ interests and less vulnerable to appearing too excited or overconfident.”
What is ambiversion?
Put simply, ambiversion is a combination of introversion and extroversion. Ambiverts possess characteristics of both extrovert and introvert at a time.
Psychology Wiki defines ambiversion as “Ambiversion is a personality trait that can be applied to people who display a mixture of introversion and extraversion.”
Signs you might be an ambivert:
Sometimes it is very difficult to determine whether you are an ambivert or not. However, like introversion and extroversion, there are a few signs of ambiversion as well. Let’s discuss the top 5 signs of ambiversion.
1. Neither “introvert” nor “extrovert suits you:
You feel that neither “introvert” nor “extrovert” describes you well. You feel troubled to choose one of these as your personality. This is a very good sign that you might be an ambivert. As ambiversion combines these two, you spend your “me time” time and you also spend social time. That’s why you just cannot choose one between introversion and extroversion.
2. You want to be the center of attention, but not for a long time:
Like the extroverts, you also want to be the center of attention for a period. You feel amazing when this happens. However, you just can not stand it for a long time; you don’t want it to last. Whenever it lasts, you feel uncomfortable like the introverts.
3. You need your “me time” and social time:
Ambiverts need to spend time with others; it energizes them like the extroverts. Again, they cannot just survive without spending some time alone, as the introverts do.
Perhaps you have had a phase in your life when you spent a lot of alone time, but need you social time, you like social gatherings. Or vice versa could be true as well.
4. You need a balance between both solo and group work:
It’s no wonder that ambiversion is all about balance. Therefore, if you tend to balance between solo and group work, it is a very good sign as well. You want to do things on your own, and sometimes as a group.
5. You cannot spend neither too much alone time nor too much time with others:
As mentioned before, balance is the key to ambiversion. You need both enough alone time and enough quality time with others. Lack of any of these two feels exhausting for the ambiverts.
6. Good conversations make you feel good, but you also value comfortable silence:
You can be a good talker like the extroverts. You can also be a good listener like the introverts. Put simply, you can just play both roles easily. Additionally, you enjoy a roaring conversation and being the center of attention of the parties, but you don’t feel bothered when the conversation dies down or attention goes elsewhere.
You might be interested to read about sapiosexuality.
