At some point in your adult life you may have been asked the question: Are you an introvert or an extrovert? You may have answered immediately based on your past experience or habits. Or you’d ask someone how they view you. Or you’d take a personality quiz to get the answer. What if I tod you that a lemon and your reaction to lemon juice can be a good indicator as to whether you are an introvert or extrovert?
A Test To Try At Home To Determine If You’re An Introvert Or Extrovert:
What you will need:
- A lemon or concentrated lemon juice
- Cotton swab/Q-tip with a short piece of thread tied exactly in the middle of it
The Lemon Experiment:
- Place one end of the cotton swab on your tongue and hold for 20 seconds.
- Next, put five drops of lemon juice onto your tongue and swallow the lemon juice. (Do not swallow the cotton swab!)
- Next, take the cotton swab out of your mouth and place the other end (the dry end) on your tongue and hold for 20 seconds.
How to examine the results:
The results are analyzed by determining whether or not the cotton swab hangs horizontally or if the end that you used after swallowing the lemon juice hangs lower because it is heavier.
If the cotton swab hangs heavier on the side which was exposed to the lemon juice this suggest you are an introvert. Why? The lemon juice caused you to produce more saliva, which on a physiological level is a signal that you’re an introvert.
If the cotton swab hangs horizontally, this likely suggests you did not have a strong reaction to the lemon juice and in most likely of cases, you’re an extrovert.
The Scientific Reasoning
In the 1960s Hans Eysenck, a pioneer of personality psychology wanted to test “cortical arousal” – the theory of extroverts and introverts. Eysenck asserted that aspects of one’s personality has physiological indicators which would determine if you were an introvert or an extrovert.
Eysenck found those with higher baseline cortical arousal, meaning, they react strongly to stimulation, tended to be introverts. Introverts tend to feel things more intensely, which might be the reason they tend to shy away from particular situations filled with strong stimulation.
However, Eysenck’s study isn’t always true. The study is interesting in the mere fact that it allows the test subject to analyze their biological responses to strong stimuli – for example, citric acid!
If you find it too troublesome…
If you find this too troublesome while you still want to know if you’re an introvert or extrovert, check out this personality quiz which will only take you around 10 minutes.
Featured photo credit: The Lemon Taster- Riley I/Lara Kerby Spencer via flickr.com
