Repository logo
 

Regional personality differences in Great Britain.


Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Rentfrow, Peter J 
Jokela, Markus 
Lamb, Michael E 

Abstract

Recent investigations indicate that personality traits are unevenly distributed geographically, with some traits being more prevalent in certain places than in others. The geographical distributions of personality traits are associated with a range of important political, economic, social, and health outcomes. The majority of research on this subject has focused on the geographical distributions and macro-level correlates of personality across nations or regions of the United States. The aim of the present investigation was to replicate and extend that past work by examining regional personality differences in Great Britain. Using a sample of nearly 400,000 British residents, we mapped the geographical distributions of the Big Five Personality traits across 380 Local Authority Districts and examined the associations with important political, economic, social, and health outcomes. The results revealed distinct geographical clusters, with neighboring regions displaying similar personality characteristics, and robust associations with the macro-level outcome variables. Overall, the patterns of results were similar to findings from past research.

Description

Keywords

Anxiety Disorders, Demography, Extraversion, Psychological, Geography, Health Status, Humans, Neuroticism, Personality, Principal Component Analysis, Psychometrics, Socioeconomic Factors, Surveys and Questionnaires, United Kingdom

Journal Title

PLoS One

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1932-6203
1932-6203

Volume Title

10

Publisher

Public Library of Science (PLoS)