Why Introverts Are Unfairly Overlooked

When you think about the people who stand out the most as deserving of your attention, it’s unlikely that an introvert would be the first to come to mind. Instead, the noisy extraverts, who engage easily with anyone and everyone, are more likely to draw you toward them. Like a moth to a flame, people are easily attracted to and engaged by the gregarious, fun, and talkative sorts. Even if you don’t exactly fit this description, or maybe especially if you don’t, it’s just easier to be around someone who smooths the wheels of social interaction.

There are a great many myths about introverts, primarily focusing on their supposed disinterest in other people. A preference for quiet and solitude is mistakenly perceived as coldness. As painful as this can be for the person who suffers from this form of bias, it can also have consequences that go beyond hurt feelings. New research shows that introversion in the workplace can have significant financial consequences.

The Introversion Disadvantage at Work

Introducing this problem in her new study, Old Dominion University’s Mallory McCord (2025) notes that although “Negative responses to introversion in the workplace have been discussed in the popular press for two decades… scholarly examinations of the topic have only recently begun.” There are two possible processes, she goes on to observe, that can account for this.

The “target-driven process” suggests that introverts create their own lower ratings because their introversion itself interferes with their job performance. Citing the example of a teacher, it’s part of the job description that you engage with your students, and if you don’t, your ratings will suffer no matter how much you know about the topic you’re teaching.

The contrasting process is the “stereotype-driven,” in which there’s nothing wrong at all with the introvert’s performance. The problem is that other people believe in the stereotype that introverts are cold and unfriendly; this bias colors their appraisals, keeping them from being able to make objective judgments.

McCord maintains that it’s the second process that is behind the problems introverts can face at work. Tracing the history of stereotypes about introverts at work to the Industrial Revolution, she believes that the need to establish an “assertive, independent self” arose when people’s jobs moved from farms to city centers. This preference continues to this day, especially in occupations that have high demands for interpersonal interaction.

The purpose of her study was to identify the introversion-extraversion stereotypes and show how they play out in the workplace.

What Introversion Stereotypes Look Like

The Old Dominion University researcher’s work is based on what is called the “stereotype content model” (SCM), according to which people are judged (or misjudged) along the dimensions of warmth and competence. What happens to introverts is that their supposed lack of warmth becomes conflated with lack of competence, and so their performance is rated solely on the basis of their inward-focused orientation.

In a preliminary, qualitative study of adults (average age 23) attending Old Dominion University, McCord asked participants to respond to open-ended questions describing an introvert and an extravert. In examining the stereotypes that emerged from these responses, the author separated out jobs that require social interaction from those that do not.

In general, introverted coworkers were described as less competent than extraverted ones, but only for jobs with high social demands. Even so, the stereotypes were easily detected in people’s written responses to the prompt.

Moving on to quantitative tests of the SCM regarding introverts, McCord next recruited online samples who rated warmth and competence of introverts and extraverts not on their actual qualities, but on how “most Americans” view them in the workplace. The social requirements of the participant’s own job were also factored into the results, and in the third and final study, McCord tested the impact of the participant’s own personality (introvert, extravert, or ambivert—i.e., both). Maybe introverts would be less biased toward other introverts, she wondered.

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You can try the stereotype rating exercise out for yourself by rating these items on a "not at all" to "extremely" scale:

• Competence: Competent, confident, independent, competitive, and intelligent.
• Warmth: Tolerant, warm, good-natured, and sincere.

The third study’s results provided further support for the SCM, but contrary to predictions, neither job requirements nor participants’ own personality ratings made a difference. Across the board, introverts received lower ratings of both warmth and competence.

It would seem, then, that stereotypes about people’s personalities and their capabilities run pretty deep, overcoming whether a task demands certain qualities or even whether someone matches your own personality self-attribution.

What Does This Mean for the Fate of the Introvert?

These findings could have some dismal implications for people high in introversion. If stereotypes about their abilities are alive and well, it would seem that they’re fated to a life either of faking being an extravert or settling for fewer opportunities to advance.

The Old Dominion University author suggests that faking isn't the answer. Rather, “organizations need to make efforts to mitigate the potential negative impact of these stereotypes on employees’ health and well-being before they occur.” The findings also mean that employers who use measures such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator are misguided because they don’t take the work context into account.

That prospect of needing to fake an extraverted exterior might not sit well with people high on introversion who fear being overlooked or discriminated against on the basis of their personality. Known as “emotional labor,” this added job demand could have the unfortunate result of creating internal stress. McCord cites prior research suggesting that to succeed in an “extraverted haven,” introverts have an unfair burden of needing to put on that false front.

There may seem to be no way around this dilemma if you’re a person who identifies as an introvert. You could seek a job that doesn’t require a great deal of self-promotion, but at some point, these findings suggest that it will be difficult even in the best of circumstances to shine your light on your abilities.

Instead, knowing about the entrenched nature of introversion stereotypes, the findings suggest that you confront them head-on. Begin by taking to heart the finding that introverts themselves have stereotypes about introverts. Enough is known from stereotype threat theory that when you believe you have the qualities of a group who face negative stereotypes, you perform in ways consistent with that stereotype. Just being aware of your own bias against yourself might give you the inspiration you need to prove to others, if not yourself, that this stereotype is misguided.

To sum up, it may never be the case that society begins to shift toward an introversion advantage. As an introvert, or someone who cares about an introvert, not letting those stereotypes define one's abilities can help pave the path to fulfillment.

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