If you would rather spend a Sunday among your tomatoes than at a crowded gathering, you have probably been called an introvert. Psychologists say the label may not fit. Published research on solitude suggests that wanting time alone and being an introvert are two different things and that the reasons behind a quiet hobby like gardening may say more about how you relate to your own company than about your personality type.
Introversion does not explain a taste for solitude
A 2022 study in PLOS ONE by Thuy-vy Nguyen, Netta Weinstein and Richard Ryan tested a common belief: that introverts spend time alone because they enjoy it. Using two diary studies in which university students filled in personality measures and reported on their time alone over seven days, the researchers found no evidence that introversion predicted either a preference for solitude or a motivation to seek it. The study is archived on PubMed Central, the free journal archive run by the US National Library of Medicine.
Two different ideas of “liking solitude”
The authors separate two ideas. A preference for solitude means choosing time alone over other people’s company, whatever the reason. Self-determined motivation for solitude means choosing alone time because it feels enjoyable or worthwhile, for example for relaxation, creativity or freedom. In the study, a person’s sense of autonomy, meaning the capacity to act in a choiceful, authentic way, predicted self-determined motivation for solitude, while introversion did not. Someone who heads to the garden because they love the quiet, the soil and the slow pace may therefore be choosing solitude for its own sake.
Solitude can help or hurt, depending on choice
A 2023 paper in Scientific Reports on the balance between solitude and socialising also notes that time alone has both benefits and harms. Isolation can be harmful, while positive solitude can bring real benefits, and the paper treats autonomous motivation as central to what makes solitude positive. In other words, the question is not only how much time you spend alone but also whether you chose it and whether it feels good.
Solitude is not loneliness
The UK Government’s loneliness strategy, “A connected society”, makes a related point. It states that loneliness is not the same as solitude, which some people enjoy, because loneliness is an unwelcome feeling. A gardener who is happily alone and a person who feels cut off from others may spend the same hours alone, yet their experiences are very different.
What this does not tell us
None of these studies looked at gardeners, or at gardening as a hobby, so they cannot say that choosing plants over parties reveals a specific personality. The PLOS ONE research was based on university students and a short, seven-day period. The sensible reading is a modest one: preferring quiet pursuits does not prove you are an introvert, and it may simply mean you value and know how to use your own company.
