Watch Brian’s TED Talk

Who Are You, Really? The Puzzle of Personality

TED, 2016

What makes you, you? Psychologists like to talk about our traits, or defined characteristics that make us who we are. But Brian Little is more interested in moments when we transcend those traits — sometimes because our culture demands it of us, and sometimes because we demand it of ourselves. Join Little as he dissects the surprising differences between introverts and extroverts and explains why your personality may be more malleable than you think.

CWRU First Year Experience

I am really looking forward to giving a presentation to the incoming Freshman Class at Case Western Reserve University on November 20th.
The topic is “Why Personality Matters: Free Traits and the First Year Experience.” CWRU has an outstanding First Year
Experience program and I am keen to meet the students and faculty, to talk about recent research, and to have some fun. @DrBrianRLittle

One Day University in NYC

Update, February 27th, 2010.

Just back from NYC where I presented a lecture at the One Day University event on February 25th at the CUNY Graduate Center.  The topic was “The Happiness of Pursuit: New Insight on Human Nature.”  The audience was wonderful and I greatly enjoyed chatting with many of you.  As requested, here is some follow up information that I hope will be helpful.

Susan Cain’s book, Quiet, is an exceptional book about the quiet strengths of introversion and the pervasiveness of the extravert ideal.  Her Chapter 9, as I mentioned to some of you, provides more information about me than you could ever want to know!  Quiet  has met with extraordinary success and has zoomed up the NYTimes and Amazon best seller charts.

Many of you asked about the reference to Owen Flanagan’s piece from which I quoted at the end of my lecture.  It is the final chapter of his book Self Expressions.  Although the book is a serious work of analytic philosophy, that final chapter does indeed read like poetry.  Please email me if you wish to get a copy.  little.psych@post.harvard.edu

Thanks to all at OneDayUniversity and the remarkable attendees who make it such a pleasure for those of us who profess.

 

 

 

 

Follow @OneDayU and @DrBrianRLittle on Twitter.

Brian Little in TIME magazine | The Upside of Being an Introvert

(And why extroverts are overrated)
by Bryan Walsh

Cover of TIME magazine Feb. 2012

Brian Little in this month's TIME magazine cover story.

“Take Brian Little. He’s a research psychologist and superstar academic lecturer, his class on personality at Harvard was perennially one of the most popular at the university. He’s also a serious introvert…”

TIME subscribers can read the full article online.