Numerous studies have found that people who are natural extroverts tend to be happier than shyer types, but introverts can get themselves a boost of pleasure just by faking it.
Psychologists assigned 117 people previously questioned about their dispositions to three-person teams and gave them a 20-minute make-work task. The researchers told some people to act assertively and gregariously and others to be passive, and gave no advice at all to a third group.
Whatever their innate tendencies, the people who acted like extroverts enjoyed the task the most, surveys showed. A test of concentration and cognition found no cost to introverts pretending to be chatty knee-slappers.
But extroverts forced to act like introverts did relatively poorly on the cognitive test.
"Would Introverts Be Better Off if They Acted More Like Extraverts? Exploring Emotional and Cognitive Consequences of Counterdispositional Behavior," John M. Zelenski, Maya S. Santoro and Deanna C. Whelan, Emotion (April)
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