# Volunteered to get up in front of the class



## SAgirl (Nov 15, 2003)

I'm in my personality psych class and my teacher asks for extreme introverts, so I decide to volunteer. Here's the experiment. There are three people on one side (the extreme extroverts) and three people on the other side, the extreme introverts (I'm on this side) Then you take Q-tips, dental floss, lemon juice, and a marker. You tie the dental floss to the Q-tip (tie the dental floss tight so that the Q-tip is balanced in the middle.) The teacher then makes a little dot on the Q-tip with the marker. Then you put one side of the Q-tip in your mouth and suck on it for 40 seconds. The introverts will produce more saliva because they are more anxious. Then you squirt ALOT of lemon juice in your mouth and then you suck on the other end of the Q-tip. (Introverts are more aversive to lemon juice) Somehow when your done the Q-tip is supposed to balance out. Mine didn't work. It was the only one because the dental floss wasn't tied tightly to the Q-tip in the first place. I don't know what the purpose of the experiment is cause I was so nervous, up there. 


I tried to look up this experiment on line, but I didn't find it. Maybe, it's on youtube. 

You guys should try it. It was kinda fun. Though, I shouldn't have done it since I'm allergic to lemons.


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## X33 (Feb 13, 2005)

This may be of interest to you.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/ ... mons.shtml


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## shyvr6 (Feb 18, 2008)

Seems interesting, but I don't know what the point would be except to have a little fun. Do you think he knows you have sa?


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## Just Lurking (Feb 8, 2007)

> Volunteered to get up in front of the class


That took some guts.

I think I've heard the lemon/saliva thing before.


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## Whitney (Oct 2, 2008)

Congrats on getting up in front of the class.

That's an interesting experiment, I've never heard of it either. There is one problem I see in it though. In theory, introverts aren't supposed to be more anxious than extroverts. Intro/extroversion simply relates to where people get their energy from. Introverts feel recharged when spending time alone, but are not necessarily anxious around people. Extroverts feel recharged when spending time around people.
Anxiety comes from a different part of the Big 5 personality traits, it comes from emotional stability/neuroticism. If you are high in neuroticism you have a tendency for negative emotional states, like anxiety. Introverts are probably more likely to have SA, but extroverts can have it too, oddly enough.


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## Whitney (Oct 2, 2008)

Ok, I read that article that X33 posted...
So basically this experiment has nothing to do with anxiety. Introverts are more sensitive to stimulation of any kind, which is why we can feel overwhelmed or exhausted from constantly being around people (even if there is no anxiety present). Extroverts need more stimulation, because their threshold is higher. So when an introvert sucks on a lemon, more saliva is produced because their body responds to this stimulation more than the extrovert does.
Other than that, I don't really get the part about the cue-tip being balanced...


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## Dan299 (Jun 20, 2008)

Very interesting


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## gracie07 (Jun 21, 2007)

Good job with volunteering to get up in front of the class!


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## serolf (Jan 10, 2008)

Neat experiment and kudos for volunteering!


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