Off Center: Introverts and the Spotlight
A look at the tendency of introverts to avoid being the center of attention.
Last year, when South Korean novelist Han Kang was announced as having won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature, Ms. Han reportedly asked her father not to organize a banquet to celebrate her award. She explained, “I want to be quiet. There are many troubles in the world, and maybe we should be more calm.” Along with the political aspect of that demurral is a temperamental one shared by many introverts when it comes to being fêted for their achievements. I specifically mentioned this holdback, this reluctance, in my profiles of introverts Marie Curie, Florence Nightingale, Franz Schubert, Alfred Hitchcock and Barbara McClintock. Distaste for being in the spotlight was also a factor in the lives of Albert Einstein, Agatha Christie and Charles Darwin.
Whether it’s jumping onto a stage to make an impromptu speech or having all eyes on them at their own wedding or birthday party, introverts generally dislike being the center of attention. As children, we weren’t the ones to pop up at school or family gatherings with some variation of “Hey, look at me!” As adults, we might make a witty remark at a meeting and enjoy the appreciative laughter, but then we blend back into our corner. We reserved ones feel more comfortable being the observer than being obviously observed. “The ever-present, draining sensation introverts feel around crowds gets ramped up the second everyone looks at me,” says writer Hope Constance, adding, “I don’t thrive in the spotlight. Please turn it off.”
Part of this out-of-the-spotlight preference is a disdain for the fuss and bother of celebratory events. Many introverts would side with Henry David Thoreau’s famous dictum “Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.” Just as we’d rather have deep, reflective conversations than marathons of small talk, we tend to get impatient with pomp and pageantry. In this way, the introvert holdback involves a philosophical attitude. It’s not anxiety.
With that said, it’s essential to distinguish between scenes of being toasted, which introverts often try to evade, and off-stage types of recognition, appreciation or acknowledgement, which introverts do value. For instance, it mattered greatly to Darwin that he be credited as the originator of the theory of natural selection, though he also respected Alfred Russel Wallace’s having independently come up with the same idea. Less graciously, Isaac Newton was so set on establishing that he, and not Gottfried Leibniz, first came up with the calculus, that he orchestrated what today would be called a smear campaign to attack the integrity and achievements of his German rival.
Note too that when an introvert has a socially acknowledged role involving skill, such as a performing musician, stage actor, lecturer or athlete in a stadium, they can accept the spotlight and an audience’s applause. After all, they have studied, rehearsed and in the moment, given their cherished art their ultimate effort. But making small talk with fans afterwards? That’s where introverts are likely to flail and fumble.
By all accounts, Han Kang was gracious, modest, respectful and restrained during her time in Stockholm to accept the Nobel Prize from King Carl XVI Gustaf. Looking through photos of her visit to Sweden featured by the Nobel Prize Committee, I noted that she showed by far the biggest smile holding up a book by Astrid Lindgren, creator of Pippi Longstocking and other beloved children’s book characters, in Lindgren’s apartment. Han endured the media attention directed at her, but visiting the home of an author she’d adored as a child was a five-alarm thrill for her. Such is the irony of the introvert personality.