Geography is important for understanding a variety of behavioral outcomes. For instance, research in regional economics examines the ways in which local resources, infrastructure, and amenities influence residential mobility and happiness. Research in public health investigates the impact that social and economic factors have on health and well-being. And research in certain areas of political science focus on the ways in which demographic, social, and economic factors shape public opinion and affect election returns. A common theme to emerge from all of that research is that there are strong links between the locations in which people live and their attitudes, motivations, and well-being—constructs that are central to psychology. And yet, psychological scientists have only recently recognized the relevance of geography for understanding such important and widely studied phenomena.

Indeed, the past few years have witnessed growing interest in geographical psychology—the study of the spatial organization of psychological phenomena and the impact that individual characteristics, social institutions, and the environment have on that organization [1]. The most prominent strands of research focus on the geographical distribution of psychological characteristics [2–5], the links between geographical psychological characteristics and political, economic, social and health (PESH) indicators [6–8], the psychological basis of residential mobility [9–13], and the impact of the physical environment on attitudes, beliefs, and emotions [14–20].

The present research falls squarely within the first two research strands and is concerned with the geographical distribution of personality in Great Britain and its associations with PESH indicators. To date, most of the research concerned with geographical differences in personality and their PESH correlates has focused on variation across nations, and only a handful of studies have examined variation within nations, nearly all of which have focused on the United States. Thus, the current project was designed to replicate and extend research in this burgeoning area by assessing the degree to which geographical variation in personality occurs in other countries and whether similar patterns of associations between the geographical personality traits and PESH indicators emerge.

Geographical Variation in Personality

The idea that there are geographical differences in personality stems from three key lines of research. The first focuses on social influence. The basic idea is that the traditions, customs, lifestyles, and daily practices common to an area affect social norms, which in turn affect people’s attitudes and behaviors. This is the assumption underlying many studies of cross-national psychological differences [21–22]. The second line of research focuses on ecological influence, or the idea that features of the physical environment affect people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. One influential program of research suggests that geographical differences stem from the historical prevalence of infectious disease, with unhealthy environments encouraging more cautious and risk-averse traits [14, 15, 17]. There is also evidence that climates and economic conditions interact to affect people’s values and beliefs [19, 20]. The third line of research focuses on selective migration, or the hypothesis that people migrate to places that satisfy and reinforce their psychological needs. Recent research indicates that people who are creative and sociable are more likely to migrate than are people low on those traits [9,10], and that people who are agreeable are less inclined to move from their hometowns than people who are less friendly [23]. This work suggests that geographical differences in personality could emerge as a result of genetic drift.

Research on social influence, ecological influence, and genetic influence provide compelling empirically based reasons to expect geographical variation in various psychological characteristics. But what evidence is there for such variation? Most of the research on geographical variation in psychological characteristics has focused on cross-national differences, with a few studies focusing on regional variation. All of the studies have focused on variation in either personality or well being, with both lines of work revealing robust differences across and within countries.

Interest in the geographical distribution of personality stems primarily from the establishment of the Big Five framework (i.e., Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, Openness) as an empirically based and widely accepted model for conceptualizing the structure of personality [24, 25]. Analyses of national personality differences and their links with PESH indicators are usually based on the mean personality scores derived from a sample of respondents in each nation. So to say, for example, that Switzerland is high in Conscientiousness is to say that the mean level of Conscientiousness derived from a sample of Swiss residents is high compared to the mean levels of Conscientiousness derived from samples of residents of other countries. Systematic comparisons of nation-level mean personality scores reveal considerable variability in each of the Big Five personality domains [7, 26, 27]. For example, citizens of Asian countries score lower on measures of Extraversion than citizens of other cultures; citizens of Central and South American nations score higher on measures of Openness; and citizens of Southern and Eastern European nations score higher in Neuroticism than do residents of Western European countries [2, 28]. Moreover, analyses of the PESH correlates of national-personality scores have revealed associations between national levels of Neuroticism, for example, and rates of cancer, smoking, obesity, and life expectancy [7], suggesting that the prevalence of anxious and depressed individuals is associated with poor health practices and disease prevalence at a national level.

Although considerable attention has been given to cross-national comparisons of personality, less attention has been paid to the ways in which these characteristics vary within countries. Research in geographical sciences has shown regional variation on a number of indicators—including public opinion, economic prosperity, crime, and morbidity—that have links to personality, so it seems reasonable to expect regions to vary on particular personality traits, too.

Indeed, evidence from a few large-scale investigations has revealed reliable variance in personality across the U.S. and one study has revealed variance across regions of the Russian Federation. Four investigations have explored the geographical distribution of personality across large multi-state regions and states [3, 4, 29, 30], the results from which have converged to indicate that there are robust geographical patterns in the distributions of personality traits across the U.S. For example, residents of the New England, Middle-Atlantic, and Pacific regions generally score higher in Openness than residents of the Great Plains, Midwest, and Southeast; residents of the South score higher in Agreeableness than people living in the Northeast; and residents of the Northeast and Southeast score higher in Neuroticism than do residents of the Midwest and West. Furthermore, these regional differences in personality have been linked to several important PESH outcomes. For example, state-level Openness is related to liberal public opinion, human capital, and economic prosperity [4, 8, 31, 32]; Agreeableness is linked to economic equality, social capital, and low crime [6, 33]; and Neuroticism is related to various indicators of poor health [4, 34–36]. There is also evidence for regional personality differences across the Russian Federation, which showed links between high Openness and economic prosperity [37]. The associations between aggregate-level personality traits and PESH outcomes indicate that the psychological characteristics that are prevalent in a region are associated with a range of important macro-level indicators, from voting patterns and academic achievement to crime and mortality.

Much of the research on geographical personality differences has focused on the prevalence of individuals with specific psychological characteristics and how the prevalence of those characteristics relate to PESH indicators. The research is useful because it provides information about how places compare on particular psychological traits and it reveals the degree to which psychological processes generalize across multiple levels of analysis and cultures. However, nearly all of the studies of regional personality differences have been carried out in the U.S. Consequently, it is unclear whether regional variations in the same psychological characteristics are evident in other countries, or whether similar patterns of associations emerge between regional psychological and PESH indicators. Extending research on regional differences to other countries has the potential to inform our understanding of the ways in which certain psychological traits cluster together geographically and become expressed on important macro-level indicators.