Shadowing Practice: What Makes Extroverts Scientifically Happier than Introverts? - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Extroverts are not a lot happier.
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Extroverts are a little happier on average.
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Decades of research have shown that extroverts have a significant, by that I mean statistically significant, not a large happiness edge,
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but one that does show up in the data consistently over introverts.
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And not only do they have sort of more intense periods of well -being,
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but their general well -being is punctuated by frequent moments of joy.
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Why do they tend to be a little bit happier?
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Now, this kind of blends together a bunch of psychological theories, but here's the typical explanation for why that is the case.
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Humans, we know, are inherently social animals.
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You've heard me go on and on about the fact that we are a hierarchical kin -based pack tropical species.
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Homo sapiens are, and our brains are suited to live in bands of 30 to 50 individuals
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that have to be really together to survive, to pass on our genes and to survive.
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We have to know our kin and be close to our kin and be highly social with our kin.
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So we're like wolves in this way.
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We're like many, many other pack animals.
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We have to be together.
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That being the case, that we are inherently social animals and that contact actually gives us a sense of satisfaction.
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Extroverts who seek out contact to get this cortical stimulation, they're going to be happier as a result of doing this thing.
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We're highly rewarded for being social.
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We get a happiness reward for being social.
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Okay, part one.
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Part two, extroverts look for the stimulus because their brain needs it.
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Ergo, when they try to go get that thing that their brain needs, they get happier naturally.
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That's the whole idea.
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They're social.
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Being social makes you happy.
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Extroverts love people, and so by doing what they naturally want to do, they become happier than introverts.
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Now, the fact that introverts prefer solitude and struggle with sociability doesn't mean that avoiding contact makes them happier.
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And this is an interesting thing.
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So you might say, okay, so extroverts, they're happier because they're in contact with others,
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so therefore introverts must be happier when they're not in contact with others.
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This is absolutely the case and this is the argument that psychologists have always made,
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that being an introvert and avoiding people is an example of meeting a need, but that that need not bringing you happiness.
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We do this all the time.
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We do all kinds of things here that meet a need in our life
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or a perceived need in our life that actually make us less happy.
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Because once again, Mother Nature doesn't care if you're happy.
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We have to be responsible for that, not just following our animal impulses.
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All right, now there are other reasons, more contemporary reasons than all of this.
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I mean, I realize that some of that was relatively esoteric, but there are other more common sense reasons why you would find in the literature
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that natural extroverts tend to be a little bit happier than natural introverts.
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To begin with, extroversion in American society in particular is hugely rewarded, much, much less so in other societies, by the way.
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In East Asia, for example, American -style extroversion is considered to be really weird.
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and it makes people extremely uncomfortable, as a matter of fact.
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I mean, if you go out to dinner with a bunch of your friends in East Asia, and you start talking about,
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you know, personal issues in your life, it's not going to be rewarded.
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That's more of an American thing.
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It's also more of a Latin American thing.
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I spend a lot of time, as some of you know, in Spain, because my wife is Spanish,
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and so we've lived off and on in Barcelona for the past 35 years.
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And when we're there, I mean, it's like, it's extroversion it's like 10, whereas it's less than that in the United States.
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Relatively speaking, it's a far more extroverted place.
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And the result is that you can have conversations that you never would.
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I mean, I recounted in one of my columns some time ago about a wonderful dinner
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that my wife and I had with complete strangers in Madrid last year.
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And within 15 minutes, the hostess at this dinner of eight couples, we didn't know them.
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She said, you know, I meant to ask all of you, what's the closest you all came to getting a divorce?
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It's like strangers.
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Gulp.
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I mean, that would make people uncomfortable in the United States.
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It would make people, you know, run screaming from the room in Japan, probably.
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But in Spain, it's like, ah, interesting conversation.
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Go deeper, go home, man.
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And that's based on this naturally highly extroverted culture.
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In the United States, it's rewarded not just socially, it's rewarded economically.
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Extroverts make a lot more money.
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There's an interesting study that shows that extroverts make about $12 ,000 more per year than introverts,
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which at the general level is like, that's no joke.
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When the average family of four in the United States makes about $75 ,000 a year, that's very significant.
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That's almost a 20 % differential in what the average family is going to make, as a matter of fact.
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They also, extroverts, they tend to attain other advantages in the workplace, such as promotions to leadership positions and high performance evaluations.
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And there's a ton of studies on that.
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There's one from the Journal of Applied Psychology I'll put in the notes.
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called Extroversion Advantages at Work, a quantitative review and synthesis of the meta -analytic evidence.
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Yeah, you got to see this because it turns out that we really reward it.
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Now, I've seen it over the course of my career, not in my case, but I've taught at business schools for a long time.
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I go back teaching at business schools for 30 years.
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And business schools, they love extroverts.
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I mean, I've taught classes where the grading criteria involved class participation up to 50 % of the grade.
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I've seen classes that are 70 % of the grade are class participation.
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And that's just like a root canal for introverts, putting your hand up and just going blah, blah, blah, blah, for the sake of the blah,
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blah, blah, because you want to get your grade up.
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Now, when I taught my classes, I tried very, despite my extroversion, because I'd be the guy like this all the time.
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Again, not a flex.
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But I didn't want to reward that in the same way, Because, you know, being a behavioral scientist, I got the data.
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I don't want to unduly penalize people who just happen to be natural introverts.
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So I would give them all different ways to participate.
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And I would make sure with my calling patterns for people who are not having their hands up
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that I would give them a particular opportunity at the beginning of class to get their comments in if they're getting counted.
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Right.
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But most professors don't do that.
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At business schools, it's like wherever you got their hand up, gets called on, they get higher grades.
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This is an example of the advantages that we're actually talking about.
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That, quite frankly, can be extremely unfair, but it's the law of the jungle.
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I mean, particularly when you're making your way into American culture.
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Very interesting book that talks about how unfair that is and how inefficient that is,
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is a very famous book maybe some of you already know about.
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The wonderful author Susan Cain has the book
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Quiet, The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking.
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I know she's not big on extroverts like me.
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I get it.
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But it's a wonderful book and it's really worth reading
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because she talks about examples of many wonderful things that have been created by introverts.
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And, you know, theory of gravity, you know, Isaac Newton was an introvert.
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Google was developed by introverts.
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And she argues that admiring and rewarding extroversion isn't just unfair, but it actually hinders progress.
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And so we should do something about that.
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It's actually, that book has been influential among leaders and it's been influential with me too.
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I mean, one of the reasons
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that I watch my call patterns to not marginalize the introverts in my class is precisely
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because of Susan Cain's work and how important it is.
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So if you ever feel disillusioned in the United States
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or any other place about our habit of elevating egotistical and charismatic leaders,
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you'll probably admit that Susan Cain has a point and
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that it's not just unfair but it's kind of unwise for us to be marginalizing introverts or not paying attention to them.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “What Makes Extroverts Scientifically Happier than Introverts?”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: introvert, extroverts, happier, blah, extroversion. This video has 115 sentences and 1458 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:06. The speaker talks fast, about 180 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 82% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| reward noun | /ɹɪˈwɔɹd/ | Something of value given in return for an act. |
| unfair adjective | /ʌnˈfɛɚ/ | Not just. |
| naturally adverb | /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/ | In a natural manner. |
| happiness noun | /ˈhæpinɪs/ | The emotion of being happy; joy; elation. |
| participation noun | /pɑːˌtɪs.ɪˈpeɪ.ʃən/ | The act of participating, of taking part in something. |
| stranger noun | /ˈstɹeɪnd͡ʒɚ/ | A person whom one does not know; a person who is neither a friend nor an acquaintance. |
| uncomfortable adjective | /ʌnˈkʌm.fɚ.tə.bl̩/ | Not comfortable; causing discomfort. |
| influential adjective | /ɪnflʊˈɛnʃəl/ | Having or exerting influence. |
| inherently adverb | /ɪnˈhɛɹəntli/ | In an inherent way; naturally, innately. |
| argue verb | /ˈɑɹ.ɡju/ | To show grounds for concluding (that); to indicate, imply. |
| explanation noun | /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/ | The act or process of explaining. |
| participate verb | /pɑːˈtɪs.ɪ.peɪt/ | To join in, to take part, to involve oneself (in something). |
| promotion noun | /pɹəˈmoʊʃn̩/ | An advancement in rank or position. |
| whereas | /(h)wɛɹˈæz/ | In contrast; whilst on the contrary; although. |
| sake noun | /ˈseɪ̯k/ | Cause, interest or account. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| hand up verb | To deliver an indictment (e.g. to a judge). | |
| go back verb | To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time. | |
| hands up | /hæn(d)ˈzʌp/ | Put your hands up (if you wish to participate). |
| live off verb | To depend on financially. | |
| turn out verb | To end up; to result. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- We're like many, many other pack animals.
- We're highly rewarded for being social.
- I know she's not big on extroverts like me.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have shown · You've heard · have always made |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is punctuated · are suited · is considered |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who just · people who are |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 30 contractions and reduced forms, such as they're, we're, I've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: participation /pɑːˌtɪs.ɪˈpeɪ.ʃən/, influential /ɪnflʊˈɛnʃəl/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, promotion /pɹəˈmoʊʃn̩/, evaluation /ɪˌvæljuˈeɪʃn̩/
- Long words — get the stress right: naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, participation /pɑːˌtɪs.ɪˈpeɪ.ʃən/, uncomfortable /ʌnˈkʌm.fɚ.tə.bl̩/, influential /ɪnflʊˈɛnʃəl/, inherently /ɪnˈhɛɹəntli/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like reward, unfair, naturally.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.