Aspects of extraversion are unrelated to pleasant affective reactivity: Further examination of the Affective Reactivity Hypothesis

Two experiments examined whether aspects of extraversion concerned with agency (leadership, dominance) and affiliation (friendliness, positive emotion) reflect susceptibility to positive affect (PA). In experiment 1, both aspects of extraversion predicted increased activated PA (vigor, excitement) following an appetitive mood induction, replicating our recent findings in this area (Smillie, Cooper, Wilt, & Revelle, 2012). Neither agentic nor affiliative extraversion predicted increased pleasant PA (contentment, satisfaction) following a pleasant mood induction. In experiment 2, induced pleasant PA was again unrelated to extraversion, as well as to two indicators of overall happiness. These observations suggest that extraverts are not generally more susceptible to PA, and that affective-reactivity cannot explain the strong relationship between extraversion and indicators of overall happiness.