If you ask introverts how they’ll feel about mingling with strangers, they predict it'll be a miserable experience. But then afterwards they almost always feel better. There have been multiple studies on this topic—extraversion, and specifically how introverts feel when you tell them, in a research setting, to behave in a more extraverted way. Researchers will bring introverts in and ask them, beforehand, to forecast how they think they’ll feel: We’re going to ask you to go out, talk to people, start conversations—how do you think that’s going to feel? And the answer is almost always negative. Some version of: This is going to suck. I’m not looking forward to it. They expect to feel drained or uncomfortable. But then they actually do it—talk to strangers, initiate conversations, behave in an extraverted way. And afterward, when asked how it felt, they consistently say they enjoyed it more than they expected. That finding has been replicated across multiple studies. It’s not surprising that extraverts feel good when acting extraverted. What’s more interesting is that introverts usually do too—certainly more than they predict. A useful analogy is the gym. Even people who like working out feel resistance beforehand. Do I really want to do this today? But once they go, they almost always feel better. Social interaction seems to work the same way: anticipatory dread beforehand, followed by a more positive payoff once they actually do it.