Chelsea Kwong

17 Jan 2016

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This is a map correlating topography and extroversion of the inhabitants of a region. It is made by Shigehiro Oishi for the research Personality and Geography: Introverts prefer mountainsStates on the left of the graph are flatter than states on the right; states at the bottom have relatively more introverts than states at the top of the graph. What’s interesting is that there is a subtle trend, demonstrating that geography actually might have an effect on the development of one’s personality. However, because the trend is so subtle, i.e. around the elevation difference of 5000 the states are spread out all through that vertical axis, it might not even be an accurate depiction. Though it is expected that one such ambitious study is prone to error and inaccuracy. Measurement techniques for the inhabitant’s extroversion can be inaccurate, self-reports are known to be faulty. And with the outlier of Alaska, of course inhabitants there are introverts, because it is cold and has a small population. I would like to see if weather affects inhabitants’ extroversion as well, I think that combined with this study could perhaps yield more complex and insightful results regarding the correlation and maybe causality of environment and personality.