Why don’t introverts break laws?

Introverts are twice as law-abiding as extroverts says new data from our large-scale personality tests

Q: Why don’t introverts break laws?

A: Because they don’t want to.

At Knozen, we’ve collected 30+ million answers to our personality and behavioral quizzes from 1+ mm people over the past two years.

We’ve asked users questions about their friends…

“Who’s more likely to give a random compliment? Taylor or Kris?”

…as well as about themselves…

“Do you think you are an unconventional person?”

(No joke — exactly 50.09% of people answer ‘yes’ to this question. Go figure.)

Knozen’s data is one of the largest cross-validated datasets of answers on personality today.

The Knozen personality chart learns from your answers and updates in real-time.

All different personality types use Knozen, but the most avid and active in sharing their personality charts on social media have tended to be the introverts. It’s no surprise that a format like ours which allows for self-exploration in solitude would appeal to the introverted.

So we decided to dig in to the data and ask: “What sets the introverted apart? And what other personality traits or characteristics are associated with introversion?”

First we decided to look at the data for those identified by others to be more introverted, and examine their own answers to questions about shyness, sociability, and outgoingness.

As expected, those identified by others as introverted felt themselves to be quiet (92%), shy (91%), and reserved (86%). They also felt they were not extroverted (6%), outgoing (17%) or ‘people people’ (21%).

Do extroverts answer differently? Indeed they do. Their high bars are almost the complete opposite:

Those identified by others as extroverted felt themselves to be social (97%), outgoing (93%) and ‘people people’ (91%). And they felt they were not introverted or quiet (20%), nor were they shy (24%).

As expected, the size difference between the answers of the introverted and the extroverted are large and consistent. There’s a 68 percentage point gap between these answers on average, ranging from the smallest “Do you think you are a reserved person?” at 44% to the largest “Do you think you are an extrovert?” at 78%.