There’s an Upside to Being Sad and Lonely: A Talent for Reading People

Do you have a more somber, isolated take on life? Here's a reason to cheer up: According to a new study published in the journal Social Psychology, you may be more insightful about human nature. Anton Gollwitzer and John Bargh, Yale psychologists and the co-authors of the study, report that introverted people prone to melancholy are better at inferring how others react in social situations than their more extroverted peers.

For the study, the researchers asked more than 1000 volunteers about how the average person thinks, feels, and acts in various social contexts. The survey, which is publicly available on Yale's website, includes questions like "People are usually overly confident in the accuracy of their judgments: true or false?" and "Do people feel more responsible for their behavior when surround by other people doing the same action?" (The answers are, generally speaking, true and no.)

Following the questionnaire, the authors conducted a series of psychological tests on the highest-scoring individuals to see which traits they had in common. Respondents who made accurate judgments about social psychology were more likely to be intelligent and curious about complex problems. What was less expected was those same subjects also reported being more lonely and introverted, and having lower self-esteem.

"It could be that the melancholic, introverted people are spending more time observing human nature than those who are busy interacting with others, or they are more accurate at introspection because they have fewer motivational biases," Gollwitzer said in a press release. "They don't view the world through rose-colored glasses as jovial and extroverted people do."

Despite their innate strengths, the authors emphasize that introverts without formal training still don't have the knowledge necessary to compete with professional psychologists. So if you think psychology may be your calling, you won't be able to substitute your personality type for a degree.