Psychologist: Most people's blood pressure rises when they talk. But extroverted people experience milder surges when...

Emil-Kunkin on September 18, 2023

Hi, I don't think that the argument needs to assume this. The psychologist argues that since extroverts have less of an increase in heart rate when they talk than do introverts, the act of speaking alone cannot be the sole cause of the increase. So, it is likely that what causes the increase is stress, since extroverts we assume have more stress when taking than do introverts. That is, what we are trying to strengthen is the idea that increases in heart rate while speaking are not caused solely by the physical exertion of speaking but also by the stress of communication.

D gives us an example where deaf people perform two identical physical activities, but one leads to no increase while the other, a form of communication, leads to an increase. This shows that communication clearly leads to an increase in heart rate.

It isn't really relevant whether the deaf people in question were introverts or extroverts. The evidence in the study suggests that the increase would be more pronounced among deaf introverts than among deaf extroverts, but the increase was true of all people. It was just larger among introverts.