Our society has a strong bias in favor of extraversion -- those who are energized by being around others, who can process information quickly, and blurt out opinions as fast as they can blink. But there is a sizable minority of the population that does not fit this pattern -- people with a preference for introversion.
I wrote recently on the NewQual Blog about the advantages of online asynchronous research methods for capturing the insights of Introverts. And boy, this really resonated with people!
A couple of people sent me private e-mails [as introverts would do, not wanting to be loud and out-there, for the most part].
It's not just qualitative research that suffers from this problem -- virtually all marketing research does. Consider the telephone survey, where you are asked a battery of questions, many with multiple choice answers or agree/disagree scales on relatively complex topics.And you need to answer pretty much immediately.
A lot of online shopping has time limits that test our patience -- we have to choose among options quickly, or the system "times out". But with many options to choose, even the speedy must find it challenging to react quickly enough.
For more on this topic, check out the other article here:
Introverts get their day: When discussion forums and bulletin boards can be more inclusive
What's your take?
Is the world stacked against introverts? Does anyone give you enough time to consider before expecting you to choose, react or opine?
