 40. A Geographical Perspective on Personality Traits 833
Using a large sample with data from 860 
U. S. cities, Bleidorn et al. (2016) set out to 
address the question of whether a match 
between people’s personalities and the per -
sonalities of their cities is associated with 
higher levels of self-  esteem. The results sug -
gested that instead of an overall fit pattern 
across the Big Five personality traits, open -
ness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness 
showed small but statistically significant 
fit effects on self-  esteem. In other words, 
people experience comparatively high self- 
esteem when their levels of curiosity, friend -
liness, and self-  discipline are similar to those 
of their neighbors. Similarity on such traits 
may foster a sense of belonging and connec -
tion to one’s neighbors that could enhance 
feelings of self-worth.
Living in an environment that offers op -
portunities and amenities that complement 
one’s personality might also appears to con -
tribute to well-being. For example, people 
with children who are family oriented might 
be more content living in places that rein -
force domestic life, whereas people who 
enjoy attending museums, art galleries, and 
the theater might be happier in areas rich 
with cultural opportunities. There is some 
empirical evidence to support this line of 
reasoning. Specifically, in their study of geo -
graphical personality differences in London, 
Jokela, Bleidorn, Lamb, Gosling, and Rent -
frow (2015) examined whether people are 
more satisfied with their lives when they live 
in neighborhoods that have characteristics 
that complement their personalities. The re -
sults indicated that people high in agreeable -
ness were more satisfied with life when they 
lived in neighborhoods with large shares of 
family-  occupied households, green space, 
and low crime. One explanation for these 
associations is that people high in agreeable -
ness place considerable importance on close 
relationships (Graziano, & Tobin, 2009) 
and are therefore happiest living in places 
where they can raise families safely. Another 
noteworthy finding was that people high 
in openness were happier living in densely 
populated and culturally diverse neighbor -
hoods. The explanation for this result may 
be that people high in openness seek stimu -
lation and are thus satisfied living in active 
and vibrant places. These results indicate 
that not all places are liked equally by ev -eryone, and suggest that cities with a wide 
range of residential options increase choice 
and may promote greater well-being among 
residents.
Conclusion
Geographical psychology offers a rich new 
direction for developing and testing hypoth -
eses about the macrolevel causes and con -
sequences of individual differences in per -
sonality traits. Over the past two decades, 
advancements in the field have helped to over -
come the limitations that plagued research 
on national character. Now we have empiri -
cally based models of personality structure 
that are conceptually coherent, psychometri -
cally sound assessment methods, and power -
ful platforms for gathering personality data 
from very large samples around the world.
Drawing on the achievements of theory 
and research in personality psychology, 
research in geographical psychology of -
fers compelling evidence that (1) there are 
robust and meaningful personality differ -
ences across geographical regions; (2) these 
differences are driven by a combination of 
social, environmental, and personal factors; 
and (3) these differences have consequential 
outcomes at the levels of individuals and 
populations. It is still early for this emerg -
ing branch of psychology, but the discover -
ies made so far are promising and have the 
potential to expand our understanding of 
personality, the myriad forces that shape it, 
and the ways in which it impacts the world.
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