Kelly connects with The Atlantic journalist Olga Khazan whose new book, “Me, But Better: The Science and Promise of Personality Change,” follows her as she attempts to change her own personality including taking improv classes in order to boost her extroversion.  

Personality researchers talk about the big 5 personality traits and one of those traits is neuroticism.  

“And it’s honestly the one that a lot of people say that they want to change – a lot of people struggle with it. It basically encompasses depression and anxiety which any therapist will tell you is the first thing people say, as far as, why are you seeking therapy? So that was definitely the thing that I struggled with most. I scored really high on it when I took my first personality test, and that was the thing that I wanted to do something about.” 

And to tackle extroversion, you took improv classes. 

“Yeah, that’s right. So, I took improv. I felt like it would be the full immersion kind of just like, go in there and do the most extroverted thing possible. I honestly wasn’t even very familiar with improv when I started. But yeah, that is what I did. The level of fear in the room in that first improv class was just palpable. You know what I mean? When you could just feel how scared everyone is, including me. Yeah, like, everyone is just like, ‘Oh, my God, is it too late to back out?’ But then, at the end, we were all having a good time and chatting and we had loosened up. It’s really remarkable how that happens.” 

And you write that you were surprised by how much you learned and enjoyed the classes. 

“As you know, the history of improv is not necessarily one of people trying to be funny, or that even being the goal. It was based around immigrants and helping immigrants communicate better. And then also children, you know, literally called theater games for the classroom. So, you do have this sense of it helping you to break out of what you would normally do, or what you would normally say in a situation. And you aren’t going into it trying to be funny. It’s more about funny things happening as it unfolds, which I also found surprising, because I always thought that if you don’t have a script, then you’re never going to be funny. But yeah, that didn’t turn out to be the case.”

Photo Credit: Tim Coburn