Life Satisfaction Depends on Whether the Local Environment Suits Your Personality or Not

Life satisfaction depends on whether the local environment suits your personality or not, according to researchers from University of Helsinki. Researcher Markus Jokela said, "It's very common for people to talk about where is the best place to live, but most research has tended to look at factors such as income and low crime rates, and only on a very broad geographical scale, failing to consider individual differences in personality. As a result, studies imply that all people would be equally happy in the same places. It's a one-size-fits-all conclusion that, as we show, is misleading because one's level of happiness is dependent on whether their environment is suited to their personality." During the study, researchers found geographical differences and clustering in levels of life satisfaction and certain personality traits.

They found people clustered around central and urban areas were the most open and, to a lesser degree, the most extroverted with levels decreasing when moving to outer regions. Areas of greater average openness also showed a mixture of neighborhood characteristics, including higher population density and higher housing prices, higher ethnic and religious diversity, and higher crime rate.

The results have been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Source-Medindia