Monday, November 17, 2008

Personality by State

For what it's worth, this article is fun and interesting.

3 comments:

Frank Flynn said...

Simply to apply this to a different population sample (and with the requisite warnings about small sample size), how closely do you think the major-party candidates on the ballot mimicked the results from their state?

Jeff said...

Apparently I come from the most extraverted and agreeable state in the union. Go North Dakota!

Adam Kadela said...

It's hard to evaluate on an absolute scale, but let's look at this on a relative basis:

Extraversion - 9 (IL) vs. 24 (AZ) - I'm not sure if this holds up; they're both relatively intraverted people (for politicians)

Agreeableness - 26 vs. 31 - I'd say Obama is much, much more agreeable than the cantankerous McCain

Conscientiousness - 11 vs. 9 - McCain more than Obama? Funny.

Neuroticism - 20 vs. 45 - Bingo!

Openness - 21 vs. 31 - Makes sense, especially if mapped to social issues.

On a personal note, I think it's interesting that I come from a state that is more extraverted, agreeable, conscientious, and neurotic than average. Less open definitely reflects MO.