Researcher Makes Map of America According to Personality Traits
"Even after controlling for variables such as race, income and education levels, a state's dominant personality turns out to be strongly linked to certain outcomes."
Which comes first; the stereotype or the reality?
Trying to answer that question, as part of a project on the "geography of personality", lead researcher Peter Jason Rentfrow at the University of Cambridge in England, conducted research based on over 600,000 questionnaires and subsequently produced a map depicting regional clusters of personality traits. The results of the research—which Rentfrow, who spent his life "hop-scotching" across America, said "blew him away"—was published in the Journal of Perspectives on Psychological Science.
Depending on where one resides geographically, they are rather amusing: "The stressed-out New Yorker. The laid-back Californian. The conscientious Floridian. The neurotic Kentuckian."
According to an article published in the Wall Street Journal, "Even after controlling for variables such as race, income and education levels, a state's dominant personality turns out to be strongly linked to certain outcomes. Amiable states, like Minnesota, tend to be lower in crime. Dutiful states—an eclectic bunch that includes New Mexico, North Carolina and Utah—produce a disproportionate share of mathematicians. States that rank high in openness to new ideas are quite creative, as measured by per-capita patent production. But they're also high-crime and a bit aloof. Apparently, Californians don't much like socializing, the research suggests."
Some Americans were pleased with the study; others were not. One psychologist, Toni Schmader, of the University of Arizona, said: "We tend to reject information that doesn't agree with our stereotypes."
Mr. Rentfrow was quoted as insisting his sample was proportionate to the U.S. population by state and race.
