The Three Personalities of America

Based on this correlation, Rentfrow and his co-authors speculate that neuroticism was a force that attracted people to populist candidates and ideas. The more people in a certain region tend to worry, the authors posit, the more politicians can tap into those worries and drum up support for their populist messages. Trump, for instance, stoked voters’ fears about immigrants, terrorists, and other interlopers. Neuroticism particularly seemed to drive a shift toward Trump support in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Ohio, the authors write—states that were thought to be crucial to Trump’s 2016 victory.

This study and the other work by Rentfrow and many of his colleagues have added some scientific basis to the common inkling that people in different parts of the U.S. act differently. There are already many stereotypes: New Yorkers are always in a hurry; Californians are extremely chill; Minnesotans are unusually nice. While these sorts of characteristics don’t apply to every person in an area, Rentfrow and his cohort quantified some of the personality differences that do exist between states. The effort could, ultimately, help Americans understand themselves a little better.

Rentfrow acknowledges that his approach can be controversial. People rarely like to hear generalizations about their hometowns, especially if the generalization is that it’s an unusually neurotic place. And of course, many factors influence voting behaviors aside from personality. “Psychology is about trying to understand the inner workings of people’s minds,” he told me. “Here I was trying to make these broad generalizations, not just about individuals, but about people based on where they lived.”

Rentfrow had a breakthrough in 2013, when he and others published a study that suggests the U.S. has three “psychological regions.” The first, in the Midwest and parts of the Southeast, is “friendly and conventional.” It has high levels of extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness—three more of the “big five” personality traits. “The characteristics of this psychological region suggest a place where traditional values, family, and the status quo are important,” the authors write. (The southern United States also tend to be more courageous, according to his research.)

In a second region that consists of the West Coast, the Rocky Mountains, and the Southwest, meanwhile, Americans tend to be “relaxed and creative,” the authors write. People in these areas are very open—another big personality measure, marked by a tendency toward curiosity, variety, and imagination—but rank comparatively low on most all other traits. “In general, the qualities of this region depict a place where open-mindedness, tolerance, individualism, and happiness are valued,” the authors note.

Finally, there’s the “temperamental and uninhibited” region, which consists of the Northeast and, to some extent, Texas. These states have higher neuroticism than the others, and are moderately high on openness. “This particular configuration of traits depicts the type of person who is reserved, aloof, impulsive, irritable, and inquisitive,” he writes. To which we on the East Coast say, You talkin’ to me?

There are a few reasons why personality might clump up in this way. The neuroticism belt, for example, might have come about because many East Coast cities tend to be older and crowded, and living in such environments can contribute to anxiety—as anyone who has ridden a packed subway car at rush hour can attest. Neuroticism also happens to be higher in areas that have been dominated—and since abandoned—by coal-based industries, suggesting that economic woes can eviscerate mood. And compared to the sunny West Coast, in the chilly, swampy east, “the weather, in general, may not be quite as nice,” Rentfrow told me.