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Live in Illinois? You’re Probably Neurotic.
I love surveys like these, even if they’re suspect. From The Muse:
Truity Psychometrics, an online provider of scientific personality and career tests, surveyed 12,703 residents across the U.S. to determine if states really do have their unique personalities. And, it turns out they do—based on common traits, Truity categorized states into five personality clusters.
How would knowing state personalities advance your career, you ask? In a multitude of ways, really. Whether you’re a job seeker looking for companies filled with concrete thinkers or a recruiter searching for the hardworking, no-nonsense folks, this infographic shows you exactly where to look. For instance, the number of concrete thinkers is especially high in Illinois, North Dakota, and Indiana. As for the hardworking, no-nonsense folks (dubbed “The Producers”)? They’re clustered in states like Texas, New Jersey, and Florida.
I’m not sure I’d bet real money on data from someplace called “Truity Psychometrics,” but some of the categories and clusters are interesting. Vermont, Kentucky, South Dakota, and West Virginia residents were scored as “introverted,” while Montana, North Dakota, Mississippi, Oregon, and South Carolina came out in the surveys as “cooperative,” whatever that means.
People in Illinois were found to be neurotic when dealing with stress but flexible in something called “organizing your life.”
And Californians share with Idahoans, Oklahomans, and Mississippians a trait called an “open mind,” meaning they’re interested in “arts, literature, the sciences, and other intellectual activities.”
Which made me laugh. And I’m sure infuriates Californians, who probably don’t think they share anything with people from Oklahoma and Mississippi.
Published in General
I grew up in Illinois, and I’ll have you know I am not neurotic.
And neither am I.
We have a lot of concrete thinkers in our office.
That would explain why I’ve always liked visiting Idaho.
Live in California? Yer probably moving to TEXAS.
Why is it that they always have to link fluff like this to something like career or economic activity. As if that legitimizes it in some way. It actually ruins what would otherwise be mildly interesting.
Ah, the Old Dominion, the thinking man’s paradise. The Mother of Presidents. We gave you a republic, and look what you’ve done with it!
After looking over their conclusions it turns out both the state I live in now and was born and raised in, are the “Producers”. I can live with that.
If Texas was really a no-nonsense state, we wouldn’t be so welcoming of New York and California transplants. ;)
I question whether “competitive” and “cooperative” are really endpoints on a single dimension: I know quite a few people who fill both roles very well.
And would mystify New Yorkers.
At a party last year, I told a woman I was originally from Tulsa. She bemoaned the fact that another actor she knew recently had to move back there, then congratulated me on “getting out.”
I told her that I was sure her friend would find plenty of artistic outlets in my backwater hamlet, thank you very much. “Yeah, but it’s not like he’ll be able to make a living acting there,” she said.
“Well, how many of us do you know here who don’t have survival jobs?” I asked her.
She moved away to find some more sophisticated people to mingle with.
I’m not quite sure what a survival job is. Is it what most of us call “making a living?”
And now a criminal enterprise.
Producers?? Washington State?? The home of Grunge Rock and Garbage Police. Maybe Eastern Washington.
Basil, Basil, Basil. Just because felons can vote doesn’t make it a criminal enterprise. McCauliffe may be enough to do that by himself.
May be?
This strikes me as a bunch of bunk, so I’m off for Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, New Hampshire, or Pennsylvania. Well, maybe Colorado or New Hampshire.
Exactly. It’s what we do in order to support our theater habit.
Love the way you phrase it. :o)
In “The Five Dimensions of Personality” my home state, Iowa, isn’t even listed. I know lots of people get it mixed up with Ohio, but, come on…we have some personality.
We have a concrete thinker right here on Ricochet. He once wrote a post about it.
I’ve lived in Michigan, Tennessee, California, New York, and Florida and I found Californians to be the least intellectually stimulating group of people (from LA to San Diego) I have ever met, dude! Mississippians have a significant literary history and that tends to make for interesting and quirky conversation.
Most interesting of all are New Yorkers and I will always live on the East Coast for easier access to NYC. D.C. too.
Better exclude Spokane from that.
Walker Percy is among my favorite authors.
Most likely that is their target audience. Enlightened companies can give their personality test to possible employees to determine if the have the “right mindset” to be hired.
Er… Now that I think about it, Western Washington is the home of Boeing, Microsoft, Amazon.com, Esterline Control Systems, and Chateau Ste. Michelle, producers all. And we carry all the slackers on our backs.
I would add William Faulkner and Shelby Foote as well.
Edited because I forgot to mention Eudora Welty.
I went to school in Chicago, glad it didn’t infect me with neurotic.
Lol. Yeah. He’s my boss.
No.
Illinois may have changed. I only knew one guy who seemed a bit neurotic, but it may have been that he just liked to imitate Woody Allen a lot.