Regardless of crime and income levels, people are happiest living in an area that matches their personality, claim researchers

The bustling streets and tourist attractions of central London and Westminster draw crowds from far and wide, but according to a survey by psychologists, they are home to the most disagreeable people in the capital.

Researchers in Cambridge used responses from 56,000 Londoners to compose maps of personality types ranging across 216 postal districts. The maps revealed the areas of the capital that are bursting with extroverts, dense with the disagreeable, and teeming with people open to new experiences.

Central London and Westminster are home to a cluster of people who scored poorly on the psychologists’ agreeableness scale, a finding that might explain the professional success of many people living there.

“In an occupational setting, people who are successful tend to score low on agreeableness,” said Jason Rentfrow, a psychologist at Cambridge University, who led the study. “Being successful in a number of different professions is helped if you don’t care so much about pissing people off.”

London personality maps.

Clusters of people who scored highly on being open to new experiences live in areas such as Islington and neighbouring Kings Cross. These districts tend to have worse crime rates, more dense housing, and greater ethnic and religious diversity. Openness drops further out of the capital in all directions, but particularly towards the east.

According to the study, areas of south west London and Wandsworth are home to clusters of extroverts and the more emotionally stable residents of the capital. Those living in these areas also reported on average higher levels of life satisfaction.

The researchers gathered the information in a bid to understand what makes Londoners happy. The study, reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that the most satisfied people tend to live in areas that suit their personalities.

“Where we live matters, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all thing. Living in an area that has characteristics that matter to you could enhance your overall life satisfaction,” said Rentfrow.

The more agreeable residents of London tended to be happiest outside the centre in more residential parts of the capital, where there was more space for gardens and parks. The same suburban areas were not so appealing to open, creative types though. “If you’re high in openness – artists and creative types – you tend to be much happier in a part of London that’s diverse and densely populated and where there’s a lot of stimulation to feed your curiosity,” said Rentfrow.

Markus Jokela, a co-author on the study at the University of Helsinki, Finland, said the study challenged the idea of there being a best place to live in a city. “Most research has tended to look at factors such as income and low crime rates, and only on a very broad geographical scale, failing to consider individual differences in personality,” he said.

“As a result, studies imply that all people would be equally happy in the same places. That, as we show, is misleading because [their] level of happiness is dependent on whether their environment is suited to their personality.”