2023-11-09 02:19:43
While it may not always seem obvious, those who prefer to spend time alone might be considered particularly ‘badass’. Over the years, a lot of research has been done on who likes to be around other people and who doesn’t, revealing more than one might imagine.
If you’re someone who likes to be alone, don’t let others tell you that you’re weird. Being comfortable enough to enjoy your own company isn’t strange, it’s a remarkable quality. I recently came across an article from Psychology Today that talks about how being alone isn’t a bad thing and really highlights some of the research that shows how beneficial it can be for us. This article was titled “The ‘Badass’ Personalities of People Who Like to Be Alone” and was written a few years ago by researcher Bella DePaulo.
Bella DePaulo is a researcher, although she holds many titles. In her 60s, she is someone who enjoys being alone and is still single even now. As for what makes those who prefer to spend their time alone ‘badass’, I doubt anyone better could have tackled the task.
DePaulo wrote that on the “desire to be alone” scale developed by Birk Hagemeyer, people who score high on their desire to be alone tend to feel relaxed when alone, while those who who have a lower score are uncomfortable when they are alone. This is important for discussing what makes being alone a good or bad thing for someone, depending on their personality.
She wrote the following about some of the research behind the positive side of being single or ‘alone’:
If our stereotypes about people who like to be alone were true, then we should find them to be neurotic and closed-minded. In fact, it’s quite the opposite: people who enjoy spending time alone, and who aren’t afraid of being single, are particularly unlikely to be neurotic. They are not tense, moody, worried types.
People who enjoy spending time alone, and people who aren’t afraid to be single, are also more likely than others to be open-minded. People who aren’t afraid of being single are more agreeable than those who are. (People who enjoy spending time alone are no more or less agreeable than people who don’t.) And people who aren’t afraid of being single are also more conscientious than those who are. (The results were inconsistent for people who like to spend time alone.)
The question I get asked most often about the personalities of single people is whether they are more introverted. The relevant study suggests that they probably are. But research on single people generally includes all single people, whether they want to be single or not. The studies I describe here tell us something about people who aren’t afraid to be single (or who enjoy spending time alone).
People who weren’t afraid of being single were more extroverted than those who were. Perhaps this finding is consistent with research showing that single people, on average, have more friends than married people, and do more to maintain relationships with friends, neighbors, siblings, and relatives. parents. But again, research on singles’ social connections includes all singles, not just those who aren’t afraid to be single.
People who like to spend time alone were not more or less extroverted than those who don’t, but they were considered less sociable. These two scales (extraversion and sociability) measure similar things, so it is strange that they did not produce consistent results.
According to DePaulo, single people or those who prefer to be alone are more helpful, caring, connected and not selfish in any sense of the word. In 2017, she even published a book reviewing ‘The Badass Psychology of People Who Like to Be Alone’ and the book made many feel good about themselves. While most assume there isn’t much to it, there is actually quite a lot.
Part of the preface to this book ‘Alone’ reads:
A panic of loneliness has swept the nation and the world. For years, the popular press and academic annals have been pouring out warnings, in increasingly alarmist tones, that loneliness has reached epic proportions, and is killing us.
But amid all this angst about loneliness, something deeply important has been overlooked: Some people like to be alone. They enjoy their alone time. They like to live alone.
In many nations around the world, the number of people living alone has reached record levels. More and more people are also dining alone, traveling alone and moving through public places alone. Studies of married couples in the United States show that their lives are less intertwined than before. Some couples even live separately, in their own spaces, not because distant jobs or other external factors have forced them to, but because they want their own space.
For an unknown number of people, being alone isn’t just a preference – it’s a burning desire, a need. Deprived of their alone time for too long, they begin to fantasize about it. Nothing seems quite right until their need for solitude is satisfied.
Who are these people who like to be alone? Stereotypically, they are the misfits and eccentrics, the scary loners who plan shocking acts of violence. New thinking and recent research overturn these caricatures. We now have a better idea of the true personalities of people who like to be alone, and they are, well, totally badass.
To hear DePaulo speak, please view the video below. Do you agree with her? Are people who like to be alone totally badass? Personally, I think she might be right.
Source : awarenessact.com
1699508031
#Researcher #people #downright #badass