Am I an Ambivert?

AMBIVERTS DO NOT EXIST!

People seem to have this notion that ambiverts exist, which is absolutely ludicrous to me. No one is both an introvert and extrovert and I can show you why ambiverts don’t exist.

But first, I must dispel any misconceptions about what it means to be an introvert and extrovert and whether they even exist.

Firstly, introverts and extroverts do exist. From my personal experience, I have found that extroverts, on average, express the greatest disbelief at the notion of introverts/extroverts existing. They will tell you it’s all a matter of the mind. It would make sense that extroverts are more bias towards this idea, as they have likely not experienced the draining effects of socialization in the same way as an introvert would. It’s easy for extroverts to attribute introverts as just being shy and unsocial rather than getting tired (they could be both at the same time). However extroverts may not realize that an extrovert could be shy and unsocial as well.

There are actually real differences between the brains of introverts and extroverts, and this has been shown through studies of their brains.

Extroversion has been shown to have different reward sensitivity and dopamine functioning than introverted brain activity.

Both introverts and extroverts initially gain energy (dopamine) from interacting with others, but the way their brains process the dopamine is very different. While extroverts continue to gain energy by interacting with others, introverts lose energy from continuing to interact with people. Introverts react to the dopamine in an overstimulated way causing them to lose energy after a short while and end up becoming tired.

Being an introvert does not necessarily mean that you are shy or unsocial (it should also be noted that to be antisocial, means that you are a sociopath, unsocial/asocial would be a better term), but your brain literally just works differently. This also means that there can be shy or unsocial extroverts and it also means there can be social introverts.

Now how does this all relate to the supposed ambiverts?

Well there are two issues:

1. If the ambivert truly does exist, then there must be significant differences between the brain functioning of this supposed ambivert compared to the brain differences of both introverts or extroverts. Perhaps this “ambiverts” brain neurology is somehow shifting within a matter of minutes or hours, but this does not seem plausible.
2. Even if this ambivert did exist, under what model would it make sense with our understanding of extroverts/introverts. Do ambiverts gain energy or lose energy when they interact with others? Are we to assume that ambiverts gain energy when they interact with others and also when they are quiet? Then, these “ambiverts” would be the most energetic people we have ever seen in the world.

Carl Jung, the creator of the roots of MBTI, himself has stated “There is no such thing as a pure introvert or extrovert”. What he means by this is that introversion/extroversion is not completely one-sided.

Everyone shares degrees of introversion and extroversion within their brain chemistry but each person is likely dominantly either an introvert/extrovert, with a shifting degree of preferences. If you were calling yourself an ambivert before, it would be more appropriate to say that you are a well-rounded introvert or extrovert, but the concept of ambiversion, where you would gain energy from introverting and extroverting, inherently makes no sense. These are two very different ways of accumulating energy from the world.

This is why ambiverts don’t exist. As far as we know…