Otrovert

Otrovert is a rather novel concept, one invented quite recently by the American psychiatrist Rami Kaminski in his book 'The Gift of Not Belonging'[1]. It is supposed to denote a new category of personality akin to “introvert” and “extravert”. Wiktionary defines an 'otrovert' as: [a] person who is unable to feel a connection to social groups or collectives.

All of the citations there are from the last couple of years, the earliest dating to 2023.

Signs and Symptoms
Suppose you're not really able to feel a connection to social groups or collectives. You're not really patriotic and do not support any sports teams. You do enjoy physical activity, nut never had a gym membership.

And this isn’t because you're particularly introverted. You must be a bit introverted because you do spend quite a lot of time alone, but many of the things you enjoy doing are best done alone without too many extraneous distractions.

Rami Kaminski, who coined the term, has written a book on the subject of 'otroversion'. It’s called 'The Gift of Not Belonging'. The blurb says:

If you were the kid who never wanted to go to summer camp, if you prefer spending time with friends one-on-one than going to parties, if you would rather forgo your vacation than travel with a tour group, and if you often engage in acts of silent rebellion against group norms and traditions, you are very likely an otrovert. Otroverts are not natural born joiners. Unlike introverts, they are not shy or quiet, and do not quickly tire from one-on-one socializing. Yet in large groups they feel uncomfortable, alienated, and alone. Unlike those who have been excluded or marginalized, otroverts are embraced and often quite popular. Yet they never feel like they truly belong.

And, well, you probably just don’t agree with or relate to all of that. Maybe you don’t like being part of tour groups, and if you're forced to join a group then you will engage in acts of silent rebellion, but you quite like a good party, and you’d find summer camp pretty good fun if it entailed hanging out by a river rather than structured group activities[2].

Groups make you stupid
Perhaps Terry Pratchett was right all along and groups make people stupid, and you don’t like being stupid. Groups bring people down to the lowest common denominator. This is even true of academic organisations and communities. Even an informal group can go that way if the group acquires a goal of some kind. As Terry Pratchett put it in his Disc World book Maskerade (1995):

The IQ of a mob is the IQ of its most stupid member divided by the number of mobsters.

Aliovert
Kaminski coined the term 'otrovert' from Spanish otro ('other'), which makes the word rather ugly to me, given the Latin derivations of 'introvert' and 'extravert' or 'extrovert'. A better term would therefore be 'aliovert', derived from the Latin alios ('other').

[1] Kaminski: The Gift of Not Belonging: How Outsiders Thrive in a World of Joiners - 2025
[2] Kaminski: Introvert, extravert, otrovert? There's a new personality type in town in NewScientist - 2025. See here.