How crazy is your state?...

Some folks did a bit of research into how personality traits apply to us americans in different states. Granted, they only sampled 600,000 surveys (which sounds like a lot until you remember that there more than 300 million people in our country--which means about 0.2% of the population was interviewed). But the results, featured in an article in the Wall Street Journal, are still interesting. The findings are ranked a little oddly--they chose to make a low score mean "more", which was a bit of a counterintuitive choice. But they are interesting to read, nonetheless. And they have an interactive graphic! Which means the findings must be true! Order now!

Apparently California is a bit -- but only a bit -- different than I thought it was. According to the keen graphics, Californians are very similar to New Yorkers in extraversion, but are more agreeable. This confirms what I always thought (having lived both ends of the continent): just because someone doesn't maintain your opinion doesn't mean they aren't outgoing. I always found the brashness of New Yorkers preferable to the fake-politicos I ran into all over southern California, but there wasn't a measure of genuinity on this test.

Unless you count "openness", but that one raised the hairs on my neck quite a bit. The definition strongly suggests that "openness" is related to the liberal political bent--but my experience living here is one of persecution. One of my favorite bumper stickers all time is "Liberal: one who believes you should be free to think as they do." But the political discussion is best saved for another blog....

That leaves two traits from the article: "conscientiousness" and "neuroticism" (which means 'one who finds neurotic people hot'). The Californians scored higher on the first--suggesting that all the tree-hugging and recycling might actually be making a difference, which is inspiring. The word "neuroticism" was defined, not as I just wrote, but as "anxiety and stress", which I didn't feel was fair. New York scored WAY high on that one, and California didn't. But here we have people making six figure salaries living in their cars--how is that laid back? Oh, wait--probably they didn't get interviewed by the researchers, what with having no address and all.

In any case, if you are craving a quiet life instead of a loud one, you should probably head to Colorado. Their state score is Extraversion: 28; Agreeableness: 29; Conscientiousness: 15; Neuroticism: 50; Openness: 8. (Wow, that looks like a character profile from some crazy new role playing game.)