The Difference Between Introvert And Anti-Social

difference between introvert and anti-social

People often believe that introverts are anti-social or that all anti-social people are introverts. This is not true. Introversion and being anti-social is not the same thing. There is quite a bit of confusion on this distinction and this post will attempt to elucidate common misconceptions.

 

An anti-social person can be introverted or extroverted. The real difference between being an introvert and extrovert is that when you are an introvert, the brain is tired out by interacting with people, compared to extroverts who are affected very little. After having too many interactions, the introvert’s energy will be depleted resulting in needing more time to themselves. This does not necessarily mean that the introvert dislikes people. It means that their batteries run differently from extroverts. Introverts gain their energy by being away from others.

Now, the difference between an anti-social person and an introvert is actually extremely different. Confused with being unsocial, being antisocial in the psychological sense actually means that you display sociopathic tendencies. Anti-social personality disorder means that the person has little regard for others, in the sense that their internal guidance system between “right and wrong” differ from others greatly. Anti-social means that the person is likely to be very socially skilled and manipulative with others, contrary to what would be expected.

On the other hand, being unsocial means that you plain just do not want to talk to people, which would be the correct term instead of saying that a person is just “anti-social”. You can be an unsocial extrovert or introvert too.

There also seems to be a great deal of confusion on confidence in relation to introversion and extroversion too. Being an introvert does not necessarily mean you are less confident, although it could be likely that introverts on average are less likely to be confident. At it’s core, introversion means someone gets tired from being around others too much compared to extroverts who seem to derived energy from it.

If you have an “introvert” or “extrovert” friend who keeps saying they are “so introverted/extroverted”, this could help.


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