You Are Where You Live
Reboot Your Brain
By Jon Bradshaw
IT WAS 3:15 P.M. ON THE FIRST DAY OF MPI’S WORLD EDUCATION CONFERENCE IN SALT LAKE CITY LAST JULY. The room was full, 120 people ready to be entertained, challenged and (hopefully) inspired by me. But before I began, I asked the audience an important question, the answer to which would prove rather critical to the success of the presentation: “Do you understand me?!”
I live on the south coast of England and while I don’t sound like Prince Charles, I have a strong English accent, something that had already caused communication problems in Utah with a taxi driver, a bellboy and—with far more serious ramifications—a police officer (there is no such things as jaywalking in the U.K.). Having promised to speak slowly and encourage questions, I’m pretty sure that those in the audience who stayed awake understood everything.
What’s interesting is that although most of you will have an idea of what constitutes a typical English accent, our tiny country has no such thing. Our small group of islands has a huge and diverse range of accents, and I find it quite refreshing that, in a world where so much seems to be morphing into one of the same, I often struggle to understand those from northern cities such as Liverpool, Manchester or Newcastle, the latter being particularly difficult.
The way we speak generally indicates where we spend time geographically, our accents largely picked up unconsciously from those around us. However, when it comes to personality traits, we proactively relocate to live in places that match our existing mindsets, attitudes and behaviors.
Dr. Jason Rentfrow is a psychologist at The Psychometrics Centre at the University of Cambridge, England, and has researched this phenomenon, conducting studies in Britain and the U.S. His U.S. study had more than 1 million respondents and seemed to show that personalities are not distributed randomly but, as social mobility increases, people move to places that suit their personalities and that behavioral characteristics become clustered into distinct geographic patterns.
The research suggested that extroverts with open personalities, as well as those with higher intellect and a longing for diversity and stimulation, gravitate toward cities, while those with a tendency toward introversion and relaxation head for small towns or the countryside. Within the U.S., he found that people living on the East Coast were stressed, irritable and depressed, while those on the West Coast were emotionally stable, calm and relaxed (Ha!). People on both coasts, however, scored stronger on traits such as openness and imagination than people living in Central and Southern states. (Although unpublished, I am sure the findings would have confirmed that Dallas was home to the most grounded, intelligent and attractive Americans, especially those who worked for the leading meeting industry association.)
Rentfrow’s study contradicts the idea that globalization and the Internet are ironing out differences between regions. Instead, it suggests pre-existing differences between regions are being amplified, with different personality types clustering ever more strongly in places where they will find others of a like mind.
“Our findings suggest people are happiest where their personalities most closely resemble that of the others in that area,” Rentfrow said, going on to suggest that people’s choice of where to live is now as important as choosing a career or a spouse.
In the U.K. study, Londoners, while not being the most agreeable, were shown as becoming psychologically separate from the rest of the county with data suggesting they were more analytical, assertive, dominant, efficient and creative.
Of course, predictably, not everyone agrees. In his book, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Friedman argues that globalization will iron out regional differences and that humans will be able to “innovate without having to emigrate.”
Whether characteristics change as a result of living somewhere—like our accents—or whether we do in fact proactively choose to live in places that match our existing behavioral traits is an interesting question that I leave you to ponder. What is clear, however, is that behavioral studies show that your honesty, how much you sleep and even the speed you walk all change depending on where you live. Where we call home affects us in far more ways than we may have imagined.
Broaden the view to include national cultural differences, and we really do open up a can of worms—but that is an aspect I’ll explore another time as I’ve got to dash to the airport. Didn’t I tell you? I’m moving to California. One+
JON BRADSHAW presents and trains internationally on a variety of subjects in the field of human behavior and performance. He is also director of business development for IMEX, the European Meetings and Events Exhibition and can be can be contacted via www.equinoxmotivation.com.