. . . . or smaller

In "Adjudting the Volume", Maass says that larger OR smaller reactions than the reader expects can increase tension and make your book better.  He uses an example from The Da Vinci Code, where Langdon and Sophie have just escaped the Louvre where it seems all of Paris had run after them.  As they're racing away in her Mini Cooper, he doesn't yell or scream or whoop for joy.  He says, "That was interesting", which, of course, makes the whole series of events from which they just escaped a little bit larger.


Then he asks you to go through your manuscript and find 24 places to heighten or diminish something your protagonist says, does or thinks.  Wow! 


If you're writing about someone who's naturally quiet, is there a danger of making this person a caricature?  Then again, even 24 instances in a 300-page manuscript isn't that much.  Plus it's a mix of increased reaction and understated reactions.  This shall be very interesting.