Rise of the ‘otrovert’: Scientists say there’s a brand NEW personality type – and it’s very different to introverts or extraverts

If you’ve ever found yourself standing alone at a party, wondering why everyone apart from you is having such a good time, you are not alone.

According to American psychiatrist Dr Rami Kaminski, you might belong to a select bunch of people he calls ‘otroverts’.

In addition to the familiar introverts and extroverts, otroverts are a poorly understood but very distinct third personality type.

Otroverts struggle to feel a sense of belonging to a group and prefer to stand apart from social collectives.

Dr Kaminski told Daily Mail: ‘Simply put, an otrovert is a person who feels no sense of belonging to any group. Otroverts are very friendly and able to forge very deep connections with other people.

‘The only social difference happens in the lack of connection to groups: collective identity or shared traditions.’

While this might sound like a difficult way to live, Dr Kaminski says that otroverts are often more creative, free-thinking, and inventive.

Famous otroverts include scientist Albert Einstein, painter Frida Kahlo, and writers George Orwell, Franz Kafka and Virginia Woolf. 

If you often feel like an outsider in a big group, even when that group is made up of your friends, a scientist says it could be because you are a little-known personality type called an otrovert (stock image) 

Coming from the Latin root word ‘vert’, meaning ‘to turn’, psychologists say that antisocial introverts ‘turn’ inwards while sociable extroverts ‘turn’ outwards.

Otroverts, on the other hand, turn the other way – refusing or finding themselves unable to join in with other people.

Dr Kaminski, who considers himself an otrovert, says he first became aware that he was not like other people when he joined the scouts as a child.

While taking the Scout’s Oath, he realised that this communal group act had no emotional effect on him.

Dr Kaminski says this is because otroverts don’t forge the same emotional connections to group identities or shared rituals in the same way that others do.

Some common otrovert characteristics include a dislike for team sports, finding the common habits of communal life baffling or difficult, and a preference for working alone.

Likewise, when attending a large gathering, otroverts are more likely to find themselves off to the side in deep conversation with another person rather than flitting from guest to guest.

Most importantly, otroverts are immune to the so-called ‘Bluetooth phenomenon’.

An otroverts, such as Albert Einstein, is a person who feels no sense of belonging to any group. This often leads to difficulty ‘fitting in’ and a lack of concern for being cast out of a social group

This is the process through which most people are able to emotionally ‘pair’ with the people around them and join in with group identities. 

Dr Kaminski says: ‘Otroverts discover very early in life that they feel like outsiders in any group.

‘This is despite the fact that they are often popular and welcome in groups. That discrepancy may cause emotional discomfort and a sense of being misunderstood.’

Likewise, otroverts can often find themselves struggling under the pressure to ‘fit in’ with the rest of society.

However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that otroverts are antisocial or loners.

In fact, Dr Kaminski says that otroverts are capable of forming exceptionally deep and meaningful connections with the individuals with whom they are close. 

‘Otroverts find it very difficult to be part of a group, even if the group is composed of individuals who are each good friends,’ says Dr Kaminski.

‘The problem lies in the relationship with the group as an entity, rather than with its individual members.’

American psychiatrist Dr Rami Kaminski says that the artist Frida Kahlo (pictured) is a good example of a famous otrovert. Otroverts are often creative free-thinkers who refuse to conform to society’s expectations 

However, being untethered by the shackles of social obligation has its advantages for those who are willing to seize them.

Dr Kaminski says: ‘Applying the traits to famous freethinkers, I came up with people like Albert Einstein, Frida Kahlo, Franz Kafka, and Virginia Woolf, among others, who were famously untethered to any group.’ 

While they might struggle to fit in, that can make otroverts exceptionally free-thinking, independent, and creative.

Nor do otroverts typically feel the fear of rejection or worry about being cast out of a group.

Otroverts might be able to find solutions to problems that others can’t see, or invent new approaches to well-trodden subjects.