If you had to choose a place to stay, where would you go: the beach or the mountains?
If you chose the beach, then you are in the majority. No wonder, you say: autumn is coming, and everyone dreams of extending the summer for another couple of weeks. However, your choice depends not only on the weather outside the window. Introverts and extroverts prefer different locations for their vacations, and some of us choose landscape first when we decide to move somewhere.
It is obvious that extroverts prefer quieter environments, while introverts seek quiet and peaceful places. Extroverts have a great need for “recognition” – to be and connect with other people – and “showcase” – they like to attract attention and surprise others. Introverts need this much less.
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- Are you an introvert or an extrovert?
However, how people adapt to different companies, including work colleagues, has been studied in detail by scientists. Introverts work better in silence, away from places where meetings are held, where there are fewer external stimuli. Extroverts, on the other hand, are perfectly happy in buzzing cafes and noisy offices.
Another question is how we perceive the nature around us. As a result of a series of experiments, scientists came to the conclusion that extroverts prefer wide and open spaces, including beaches, while introverts are drawn to the forest and mountains.
This is probably because wooded and mountainous terrain leaves less room for “demonstration” and “recognition”. Mountains and forests are a great place for solitude and reflection, and beaches are much more conducive to all sorts of parties.
According to scientists, being in the mountains does not necessarily make introverts happier than extroverts, especially since introverts are generally less happy. But, being in the forest or mountains, they feel much better.
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In another experiment, a database of 613 US residents was analyzed. Purpose: to trace the relationship between extroversion and introversion and the geography of the country. It turned out that among the inhabitants of the mountain states, introverts are more common than among the inhabitants of the plains.
And yet it remained not entirely clear whether life in the mountains made people introverted, or people inclined to introversion themselves went there to live?
To study this issue, another experiment was carried out. The researchers sent different groups of students to an open plain and a secluded, forested area, and then analyzed their levels of happiness.
As a result of the experiment, it turned out that the type of terrain had a different effect on the feeling of happiness in extroverts and introverts – the latter experienced more stress in open areas than among trees. However, the experiment had little effect on student behavior, suggesting that the geography of a neighborhood cannot change the individual.
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Perhaps for some of us, the choice between a vacation on the beach or in the mountains may seem superficial. However, there are many examples in history of people looking for certain natural conditions to satisfy their psychological needs.
Henry David Thoreau, an American thinker, lived in a forest cabin for two years while writing Walden, or Life in the Forest. He retired to delve into self-knowledge. “Seclusion is the most “sociable” company I have ever been in. By and large, we are more alone among people than when we are in our own bedroom, ”he writes.
Whatever extroverts would say about this is irretrievably lost to history. They were probably having fun at the beach party at that time.
See more at publications of The Washington Post.