Picking One’s Battles

Abstract

Assertive behavior is positively associated with trait extraversion and negatively associated with trait agreeableness. Are introverted and agreeable people simply unable to be highly assertive? Global assertiveness is, we argue, influenced by more than one interpersonal ability; it is affected by the ability to show high assertion but also by the ability to show low assertion. If assertiveness and unassertiveness abilities are distinct skills, the unassertiveness of an introverted person might occur for different reasons than the unassertiveness of an agreeable person and might in consequence manifest in different situations. To explore these possibilities, we looked at informant reports of participants’ assertiveness and unassertiveness abilities (Study 1) and participants’ if-then profiles of assertiveness behavior (Studies 2 and 3). The results suggested that introverted people are less assertive than extraverted people because they have lower assertiveness ability, whereas agreeable people are less assertive than disagreeable people because they have higher unassertiveness ability.