Smiling Scots, worried Welsh and lazy Londoners: survey maps regional personality types
Looks like many rural places don’t come out well in what might be described as a “metro-sexual” analysis. I just think the researchers don’t get deep understated rural folks. This story tells us:
The finding may be no surprise to those outside the M25, but Londoners rank among the least welcoming and most lazy people in the country, according to a survey of personalities in Great Britain.
Though more curious and sociable than most, people living in the capital came across as uncooperative, quarrelsome and irritable compared to the rest of Britain, and scored particularly badly on conscientiousness.
The dim view of London’s residents emerged from a survey by Cambridge scientists that provides a rare snapshot of the country’s psychological landscape. It suggests that different personalities cluster together to create a patchwork of regional characters.
According to the survey, the most friendly and emotionally stable Britons were found in Scotland, while Wales was home to a disproportionate number of shy and neurotic people.
“There’s a widespread belief that people in different parts of the country have different characters and in some ways this research was testing that idea,” Jason Rentfrow, a psychologist at Cambridge University, told the Guardian.
The findings, published in the journal Plos One, go beyond reinforcing, or in some cases, overturning, tired regional stereotypes. Psychological factors can have a significant impact on public health, and understanding the reasons they cluster in geographical areas can help with local policies to improve people’s wellbeing.