Can You Change Your Personality?

Can You Change Your Personality?
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By Jill Suttie

I'm an extrovert—or so I've been told. I'm generally more energized by being with other people than alone, and I like to bounce ideas off of my friends rather than ponder them on my own.

Extroversion (versus introversion) is one of the "Big Five" personality traits that psychologists have identified as key to one's personality. Along with the other four traits—openness to new experiences, agreeableness or the concern for social harmony, conscientiousness or self-discipline, and neuroticism or emotional instability—our level of extroversion is considered somewhat "fixed" by the time we reach adulthood, only incrementally changing over time.

Scientists believe that personality traits not only determine what we are like, but may also impact our social relationships, work experiences, mental and physical health, and other aspects of our life.

But a recently published study suggests that our "personality" may be more changeable than we think.

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