期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2015
卷号：112
期号：3
页码：725-730
DOI：10.1073/pnas.1415800112
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：SignificanceRecent studies in geographical psychology have demonstrated regional variations in personality--people with similar personality traits are more likely to be found in some regions than others. What is the psychological significance of such spatial clustering? Our study was motivated by the person-environment hypothesis, which postulates that the match between people's personality and neighborhood characteristics is important for people's life satisfaction. The results showed that personality traits were differently related to life satisfaction in different postal districts of London metropolitan area, and these varying associations were related to specific neighborhood characteristics, such as population density and ethnic heterogeneity. These findings demonstrate how individuals with different personality dispositions derive life satisfaction from different aspects of their social and physical environments. Residential location is thought to influence people's well-being, but different individuals may value residential areas differently. We examined how life satisfaction and personality traits are geographically distributed within the UK London metropolitan area, and how the strength of associations between personality traits and life satisfaction vary by residential location (i.e., personality-neighborhood interactions). Residential area was recorded at the level of postal districts (216 districts, n = 56,019 participants). Results indicated that the strength of associations between personality traits and life satisfaction depended on neighborhood characteristics. Higher openness to experience was more positively associated with life satisfaction in postal districts characterized by higher average openness to experience, population density, and ethnic diversity. Higher agreeableness and conscientiousness were more strongly associated with life satisfaction in postal districts with lower overall levels of life satisfaction. The associations of extraversion and emotional stability were not modified by neighborhood characteristics. These findings suggest that people's life satisfaction depends, in part, on the interaction between individual personality and particular features of the places they live.
