Hi SH50 - I know what you're talking about and am fascinated by it as well. I think it's a component of personality, but I don't think I've ever seen it explicitly named.

You might want to read a bit about the "DISC" model of personality. I can't remember what the letters stand for (sorry) because when I was introduced to it, it was via "colors" for the various personalities. The idea was that we all have a mix of the 4 colors/types in us, some of us are very dominant in one or two areas, others are more or less equal across the four. How we interact with specific people is based on our personality and theirs...

Here's a super-shortened overview of what I remember:
- Red: Energetic, leader, take-charge, efficient, rule-breaking to get things done
- Yellow: Social, fun loving, social butterfly, chatty, rather be at the beach, playful
- Green: Harmonizing, lots of imagination, conflict-avoidant, good at getting along with others and seeing their point of view, good at fitting in with others, good at entertaining themselves with their thoughts
- Blue: Analytical, thinks, over-analyzes, hard on self

I'm primarily blue and green. We learned about this in a workshop at work... and what was fascinating was that we did 2 activities. In the first, we were grouped with people very similar to ourselves... I was in a group of mostly green folks. Everyone in my group was extremely quiet, laid back, peaceful, go with the flow... nobody wanted to take charge. I have a tiny bit of red, and that situation totally made me jump in and grab the reigns (which I generally do NOT do!). I wasn't good at it, but I sensed that someone needed to lead, and that no one else was prepared to do it... so I did my best.

In the second activity, we were put in groups that were more balanced. My group had two very red guys, who immediately took charge, organized the problem, assigned roles, and just made everything happen very fast. I very much tried to stay out of their way, and be ready when they needed my part of the puzzle. (Our team won that challenge, btw!). In that situation, I didn't need to step up because there were capable leaders... had I tried to take over, it would have been messy, since the "red" folks have a bit more of a natural inclination to be pushy than my sensitive little green self

The woman running the workshop actually even said that she advises her clients, "If you're primarily blue or green, don't argue with people who are red or yellow. The red people will rip you to shreds, and the yellow ones will dance circles around you."

Anyway, it doesn't answer your question... but it was interesting, and something to think about!