As Brian Little climbs the steps to the podium early in the morning in Arizona on the way to his opening lecture, he flips an inner switch. From now on, the introverted psychology professor who loves his peace and quiet becomes an energetic entertainer who brings the hall to operating temperature (“At 8:35 in the morning, the audience doesn’t want a modulated, quiet speech, especially after a passionate night of drinking”). Little is skilled at slipping into this role on command, which isn’t really a role at all, but rather his authentic self in that moment.
Acting out of character is what the personality researcher calls the phenomenon that he has observed that we all know: We then step out of our natural, biologically anchored nature for a while and slip into it free traitsinto self-selected character traits. This, Little says, happens especially when we are pursuing a “personal project,” something that has particular meaning to us. In a study, Little and his team found that people pursue around fifteen such personal projects: singing in a choir, keeping a diary, helping the homeless, being there for children. Most people associate their projects with pleasant emotions and a sense of meaning in life. If you dedicate yourself to this activity, you feel authentic – even if you are different than your nature.
In 1996, Little outlined his theory in the journal Psychological Inquiry and in 2014 he expanded the field of view in his popular book Me, Myself, and Us. By the way, the introverted knowledge entertainer was voted students’ favorite professor three times in a row at Harvard University from 2002 to 2004.
Even more milestones in psychology:
2018 Jule Specht documents that personality can change throughout life
1982 Lewis Goldberg extracts five basic traits of personality (Big Five)
1959 Erving Goffman portrays the self as role play
1890 For William James, the character is “solid as plaster” by the age of 30 at the latest.
1782 Jean-Jacques Rousseau sometimes feels “like someone else of the opposite character”
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