Article Geopsychology: Your personality depends on where you live

[C C]

https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/geopsy...variation/

KEY POINTS: Scientists in the relatively new field of “geopsychology” are seeing links between personality and location. A 2021 study found geographically significant variations in the distribution of the Big Five personality traits. It turns out that Southerners are more agreeable, while Northeasterners are more neurotic — but not all results conform to stereotypes.

EXCERPTS: . . . “Psychogeography” is already taken — basically, it’s a fancy term for “walking while moody.” “Geopsychology,” however, is still available. And it sounds just about right to describe the systematic study of regional differences in the distribution of personality traits, especially since those differences do indeed seem to be “robust.”

The traits examined on the maps are the so-called Big Five, a grouping of five broad personality dimensions that started gaining currency in academic psychology in the 1980s and are often referred to by their acronym, CANOE:

• Conscientiousness
  
• Agreeableness
  
• Neuroticism (a.k.a., Emotional Stability)
  
• Openness
  
• Extraversion

Each trait is a spectrum. More conscientious means more efficient and organized; less conscientious means more extravagant and careless. Agreeableness ranges from friendly and compassionate on one end of the scale to critical and rational on the other. Neuroticism ranges from sensitivity and nervousness to resilience and confidence. Openness, from curiosity to caution. And extraversion, from outgoing to solitary.

The usual caveat applies: None of these traits should be taken in isolation, neither for cause nor effect...

[...] Among all those variables, geographic location seems to have a significant effect on the prevalence of these traits — hence, geopsychology. On these maps, orange means higher than average, blue means lower. Darker means greater distance from the average... (MORE - details)

[Magical Realist]

Oregon fared low in all categories except for openness. According to the map, there is a long swath of openness all along the west coast, in the Southwest states of Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado, and of all places, in Florida? lol I moved from Texas to Oregon 30 years ago to avail myself of a culturally vivid and neo-bohemian lifestyle. I craved the fertile atmosphere of new music, indie films, unique food choices, progressive politics, metrosexuality, and a dynamic intellectual life. Portland became my Mecca for a promising future of inspired thinking and continued philosophical inquiry. The quality of openness to trying new things likely figured prominently in my quest for that since then somewhat quixotic holy grail.

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