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A lot of us like to label ourselves as either introverts or extroverts. However, did you know that most of us are actually ambiverts, falling somewhere between the two extremes? Nonetheless, odds are that you know at least one genuine introvert in your social circle. Who knows, it might even be you! Well, we’ve got a real treat for you, whether you're an introvert or not. Odds are that you can relate to these funny situations and insights.

‘The Funny Introvert’ is a very popular Instagram account that documents the most relatable moments and memes on social media, run by a self-proclaimed introvert. The posts are very witty, funny, and frankly just a lot of fun to read. Scroll down for ‘The Funny Introvert’s’ best posts, and don’t forget to upvote your fave ones, dear Pandas.

Dr. Andrew Spark, a personality scientist from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) who researches extroversion and leadership, shared his perspective on introversion with Bored Panda, especially in the context of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

I asked him whether the world is generally more geared towards extroverts than introverts, which traits are more valued, whether there is pressure to be more extroverted, and whether things have changed much over these past two difficult years. He was kind enough to go into detail and noted that, in reality, introverts didn’t fare better than extroverts during the lockdowns, as many expected they would.

Scroll down to read what he had to say and to check out two free, scientifically validated personality tests to see if you’re more introverted or extroverted which Dr. Spark recommended to you Pandas.

According to Dr. Spark from QUT, the specific context is often very important to consider whether introversion or extroversion is warranted or even preferred n a particular situation.

“For example, it’s not a good idea to be highly extroverted in a movie cinema, or when you’re in a meeting and your boss is talking. It can also be a good idea to be more introverted if you are in a leadership role and you have highly proactive team members. Extroverted leaders are more likely to be overly dominant which can disempower followers—not something you want if those followers are actually highly proactive!” he explained to me. However, there is a flip side to this.

“Conversely, it can be advantageous to be more extroverted if you are trying to be seen as more leaderlike by others and want to get promoted into leadership roles,” Dr. Spark stated.

In Dr. Spark’s opinion, at a cultural level, there is some evidence that extroversion is more highly valued than introversion. “Possibly more so in the western world, although it is important not to overestimate these differences across cultures,” he noted.

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“For example, there has been some research out of the UK which showed that mothers of infant children aged 0-12 months rank-ordered extroversion as being more important for their infants than conscientiousness or intelligence. In other words, being introverted (the other end of the extroversion continuum) was not desirable as far as these mothers were concerned.”

However, the spread of Covid-19 around the globe and the ensuing lockdowns have made things more complicated. Though introverts weren’t at such a huge advantage as many of us thought they would be.

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Caro Caro
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

OMG This one is brilliant and so true. Gotta send this to my bestie ...

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“The original expectation by many was that the pandemic would be welcome news for introverts because of the lockdown—almost as if the lockdown was geared towards introverts. However, the reality is not so simple. As it turns out, extroverts have fared better than introverts during lockdown,” Andrew noted.

“This is probably because extroverts have a higher level of well-being anyway and were probably better at drawing on their social networks with the help of modern communication technologies. Introverts who were by themselves, probably did quite well from a well-being point of view, however for those introverts who were locked down in a busy household, we can’t be so sure!”

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Kristin Nicole
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Please tell me you are one of us (that's okay, then) and not making fun of us (harsh, but we forgive)?

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wickbits
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's 100% true. I've had the pleasure of meeting them, and they are totally normal dad-kind of guys. Super friendly and down to earth, were even willing to play with total amateurs.

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albernistuff 4sale
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

1998 Nagano Winter Olympics...Canadian team looks like all middle aged dads who drink a lot of beer and smoke a pack a day

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Amanda Harris
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The entire curling team visited our homeschooling group and talked about competing and winning gold. They even passed their medals around. They were super cool and super nice.

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Rae Black
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This pic looks like it could be from one of those feel good, "they didnt think they could make it but they did" movies that I would rent from YouTube, hit play and then forget about it and go do something else.

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Adrian Waite
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"Hey mom didn't dad go get milk?" "Yes honey he did" "then why is he on the tv?"

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Amanda Harris
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The entire curling team came by our homeschooling group and talked about the Olympics. Super cool and they were super nice.

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Amy Stone-Chandler
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm Canadian. This is true. They become great all in the name of escaping home

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J.L. Martin
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I find this post very amusing. Plus the middle gentleman looks like Chris Pratt's older brother.

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Trillian
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2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I spent a year in St Paul as an au pair and the middle guy looks a lot like the host dad. So yeah.

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jammer
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I’d watch that. Netflix, get on it! Lessee, I want Adam Sandler, Marc Blukas, Jack Black, Hugh Laurie and… who am I kidding, John Malkovich of course.

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sirfryingpan
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

middle guy kinda looks like MrBeast if he became a lumberjack

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Michelle C
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sure as hell can't get them to sweep an area that fast and effectively at home!!!

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Daryl McIntire
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2 years ago

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Would a funny quip come from this picture if it were of another race of people? Do you see how utterly tiring it is to hear complaints related to race or sex every day?

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Something
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Exercise becomes much easier to do if there's some made up objective like a game or sport. The animal brain doesn't want to waste energy but is easy to trick with nonsense.

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Dr. Spark was candid that it’s true that many introverts feel pressured to be more extroverted. “In general, this pressure will often feel most powerful when you find yourself in social situations,” the personality scientist said, alluding to parties, networking events, meetings, impromptu social circles in the workplace, and similar gatherings.

“Stress levels are also elevated if you are also high in other personality traits, particularly trait neuroticism, which governs how sensitive to negative emotion you are. Some of the research my colleagues and I have done in a group leadership context suggests that when we act introverted in social situations, we are more likely to think less of ourselves—it’s almost as if we become extra self-critical.”

Something else that Dr. Spark and his colleagues found was that those people who act introverted think worse of themselves than what others think of them. “We are harder on ourselves than others are—probably because other people are too busy acting extraverted to pay much attention to us!” he said.

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Finally, Dr. Spark suggested that we can check out these two personality tests to see how extroverted or introverted we are. You can find them here (Principles You) and here (Open Psychometrics). Enjoy! And let us know in the comments what you learned about yourselves, dear Readers.

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September Meadows
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm diabetic. Debra can go f#@k herself with a 50 year old weathered fence post wrapped in rusty barbed wire! #justsayin

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The person behind ‘The Funny Introvert’ account is Ronald Rrusti, a writer, meme enthusiast, and entrepreneur, according to his website. “I have written & created thousands of jokes and viral content,” he writes.

He told Bored Panda that he prefers to be out of the spotlight, being an introvert and all. The creator of the project is incredibly humble and prefers to give credit to others, including the people whose posts he features with their permission. He also believes that there are plenty of other Instagram pages about introversion that are better than this. I think that this humility might be part of the project’s overwhelming success online.

‘The Funny Introvert’ account boasts a whopping 2.7 million loyal followers. That’s a huge amount. And the founder of the project managed to get so many fans by sharing just over 7.1k posts.

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Mia D
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Especially when you try to fall asleep and your brain would be like:" hmm, let's remember the most embarrassing moment of your life"!

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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sad reality... Elon can GTFO with his advice on having more children I guess...

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During an earlier interview with me, Dr. Spark from QUT went into more detail about introverts and extroverts.

“It is clear that introverts think about social interaction differently to extroverts, which may result in introverts choosing not to engage in the behaviors that may assist them into leadership roles (despite being perfectly capable of engaging in such behaviors),” he told Bored Panda.

“My research on introversion and leadership focuses on how introverts and extroverts think and feel about the behaviors required of leaders in leadership situations. Leadership roles typically require one to act in ways that are generally better suited to extroverts (e.g., to be assertive, social, bold, etc.). For many decades, we have known that extroverts tend to perform better in leadership roles and are selected into leadership roles more often, however, more recent scientific work has been exploring how and why this happens,” Dr. Spark explained.

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“In my own work, my colleagues and I found that one of the reasons introverts are not seen to be as ‘leaderlike’ by others is because they think that leadership situations are going to be unpleasant. The technical name for this is ‘affective forecasting.’ Affective forecasting refers to the expectation we have of our future emotions, which is to say that we make a prediction about how we will feel in a future situation," he explained

“Introverts are known to underpredict how good they will feel in future social interactions if they forecast themselves acting extroverted (because, perhaps surprisingly, acting extroverted is actually quite enjoyable, even for introverts). Given leadership situations require extroverted behavior, we expected that introverts’ propensity to forecast more negative effects would probably help to explain why they do not rise into leadership positions as much as extroverts. This is indeed what we found.”

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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Haha that's brilliant! Just be cautious when inviting The Queen, she might actually show up ;)

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According to Dr. Spark, one area of future interest in research is whether we can change how introverts think about social interaction to improve their chances of rising to leadership positions. Dr. Spark said that in some situations, introverts can be more effective leaders than extroverts.

The expert told Bored Panda that extroversion is a continuum and most people fall somewhere in the middle. They’re what we call ambiverts.

“Also, there is no official cut-off on someone’s score before they are said to be an extrovert or an introvert, however, as a very rough rule of thumb (assuming you really want to divide people up into categories), it would not be unreasonable to say that 15-20% of the population are noticeably extroverted and 15-20% of the population are noticeably introverted. The remaining 60-70% of the population are probably more difficult to pigeonhole and hence may be better thought of as ambiverts,” he explained.

“A large body of evidence shows that introverted people actually engage in quite a number of extroverted behaviors in their daily lives as the specific situation demands, despite having a preference to be quiet and reserved. Equally, extroverted people engage in quite a number of introverted behaviors in their daily lives. That said, it is interesting that extroverted people have been shown to sometimes struggle when having to act introverted,” Dr. Spark told Bored Panda.

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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This should be one of the milestones parents and children celebrate: the first time the kids voluntarily go to bed.

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“It is a common assumption that introverts need to recharge more after social interaction. However, the research on this issue is mixed. For example, in this study, scientists found that both introverts and extroverts experienced mental depletion after interacting with others and that this depletion occurred approximately 3 hours after the interaction,” the researcher said.

“It didn’t make any difference if the person was introverted or extroverted. Then again, this study found that introverts experience slightly more negative emotion, tiredness, and more feelings of inauthenticity when acting extroverted, despite also experiencing more positive emotion (note that positive and negative emotion are actually different processes rather than being polar opposites, so it is possible to be high on both). The jury is still out on this issue, which might come as a surprise to many!”

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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

What are the point of proofs? Like what do they do? Yes, it’s an obtuse triangle. And your point is?

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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The burglar will be checking around the floor for a dog, then the cats come leaping down with an elbow from the ceiling.

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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Daily reminder to give your local lawyer a hug so they don't cry

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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You people have no idea how hard it is to make sure that the almonds don’t go off running when you’re trying to milk them

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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Interestingly, according to the Bible, Hell will feel extremely lonely for everyone who comes in. It’s still really funny though😂

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