What does your personality have to do with America’s mood?

Erica Quinnies |

Above: What the data hath wrought.
Above: What the data hath wrought.

You guys like the OCEAN? No, not serene beachside views of white-capped waves, but rather a way to measure a person or, in this case, an entire state’s relative personality. OCEAN refers to a spectrum of Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism. A study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (PDF) spanned 13 years of extensive research, surveys and questionnaires alike to come to a consensus on America’s individual personalities and moods on a state-by-state basis. (Read more about it.)

Wisconsin, the top scorer in the category of extroversion (really?), also ranked highly in friendliness and conventionalism (sounds right). Minnesota, also considered a friendly and conventional state, ranked 6th in agreeableness. Other results claim the East Coast is rather temperamental and uninhibited, whereas the laid-back west coast categorized as relaxed and creative.

The study questioned if Americans partake in selective migration – the idea that we move to states that satisfy our individual needs and desires. It’s looks like that personal economic standing as well as job availability is going to attract us to particular regions. But, I feel the study neglected to identify a very important factor regarding location: our likelihood to settle in areas where our friends and family already reside.

Nevertheless, it's hard to disagree that our unique personality traits must have some influence over where we decide to live, in hopes that our needs are met with specific experiences and opportunities offered in particular regions of the US.

So to discover which state would accurately match my personality, I decided to take a short online test based on the study results (check it out over at TIME). I didn’t assume I’d score into my home state, Wisconsin, but my results? Georgia. Who would have thought? I suppose I would enjoy the warm weather and not (for a second) miss our Midwest snowfalls. But, I think I’d long for our beer and Packer Games. Nonetheless, Georgia, coming in 3rd place for most extroverted state also took 2nd in conscientiousness. In addition, Georgia scored rather low in most neurotic, receiving 45 place. So I imagine that’s probably a good thing.