State Resident Handedness, Ideology, and Political Party Preference: U.S. Presidential Election Outcomes Over the Past 60 Years.

Pearson correlation, partial correlation, and multiple regression strategies determined the degree to which estimates of the level of left-handedness in each of the 48 contiguous American states related to citizen political ideology and to Democratic-Republican presidential popular vote over the past 60 years. Higher state levels of left-handedness were associated significantly with liberal ideology in each of the presidential election years from 1964 to 2016. Comparable ideology data were not available for 2020. Higher state levels of left-handedness also were associated with a greater degree of Democratic candidate popular vote support in each of the presidential election years from 1964 to 2020 except for 1976. The mean size of these 28 significant Pearson correlations involving the two political criteria was .62 (SD = .12) with a range of .38-.80, indicating handedness alone could account for a mean of 40.1% (SD = 14.9) of the variance in the two political preference variables. Corresponding multiple regressions showed that when state-level Big Five personality, White population percent, urbanization, and income variables were given the opportunity to enter the equations, handedness still emerged with a significant regression coefficient in 26 of the 28 equations. The two exceptions occurred for 1968 with either political preference criterion. It is speculated that such relations are grounded in hypothesized but poorly understood genetic links between handedness, personality, and political beliefs and attitudes, and, that a foundational genetic predisposition to left-handedness in a population may have much greater impact on correlates than overt levels of left-handedness.

Does diversity foster individualism? The relation of racial-ethnic diversity to individualism-collectivism across the 50 American States.

Recent longitudinal research by others analyzing the relation between racial-ethnic diversity and individualism-collectivism in the 50 American states over the period 2000-2018 suggests that racial-ethnic diversity promotes individualism. The present study used a cross-sectional approach based on 2013 data to determine whether a relation mirroring the longitudinal pattern exists between racial-ethnic diversity and individualism-collectivism across the 50 states. Two measures of state racial-ethnic diversity were related to four measures of state individualism-collectivism using Pearson correlation and partial correlation controlling for state socioeconomic status. All correlations between diversity and individualism were negative and all those between diversity and collectivism were positive. The absolute magnitudes ranged from .43 to .68 for the Pearson correlations and from .43 to .67 for the partial correlations. Contrary to the earlier longitudinal findings, the current results show that states with higher racial-ethnic diversity are less individualistic and more collectivistic.

State resident volunteering and health are unrelated when neuroticism is controlled: Nomothetic evidence using the 50 states of the USA as analytical units.

This research challenges the claim that engaging in formal volunteering improves health. Using data for the 50 American states pertaining to 2015-2016, multiple regression equations with differing control and entry order demonstrated the capacity of state resident neuroticism to eliminate relations between state volunteering rates and state health outcomes. In Study 1, with state SES, White population percent, urban population percent, and health environment considered and controlled, volunteering accounted for 11.5% of state health variance. However, with neuroticism entered between the demographic controls and volunteering, neuroticism accounted for 18.0% but additional variance accounted for by volunteering was reduced to 0.7%. Similarly, in Study 2, with data for those 65 and older, the results were replicated. It is speculated that higher neuroticism produces social anxiety that discourages volunteering and fosters poorer health at both the individual and the state level for the general population and for those 65 and over.

The relation of neuroticism and social anxiety to willingness to volunteer.

Relations between neuroticism, social anxiety, and generic and specific willingness to volunteer were examined among psychology undergraduates (N = 196). Based on previous research and speculation, with each of the willingness to volunteer criteria, and either without or with statistical control for age, sex, and international student status, the following hypotheses were tested: (1) Neuroticism negatively correlates with willingness to volunteer; (2) Social anxiety negatively correlates with willingness to volunteer; (3) Controlling for social anxiety substantially reduces or eliminates the relation between neuroticism and willingness to volunteer; and (4) Controlling for neuroticism does not substantially reduce or eliminate the relation between social anxiety and willingness to volunteer. For generic willingness to volunteer, Hypotheses 1 and 2 were supported with but not without the three demographic controls. For specific willingness to volunteer, both hypotheses were confirmed with or without demographic controls. Hypotheses 3 and 4 also were supported with each criterion.

Handedness predicts Conservative-Republican preference and eliminates relations of Big Five personality to political orientation using the 48 contiguous American states as analytical units.

The two present nomothetic studies focused on the period from 1996 to 2012 to determine relations between handedness and political orientation using the 48 contiguous American states as analytical units. The estimated percentage of left-handers in each state operationally defined handedness. A composite measure of Conservative-Republican preference was created from CBS/New York Times/Gallup polls of state resident conservatism and the percent in each state voting Republican in each presidential election from 1996 to 2012. Study 1 showed that state levels of left-handedness correlated to an extremely high degree with Conservative-Republican preference (r = -.80). As well, with common demographic differences between states reflected in socioeconomic status, White population percent, and urban population percent controlled through multiple regression, handedness still accounted for an additional 37.2% of the variance in Conservative-Republican preference. Study 2 found that each of the Big Five personality variables correlated significantly with handedness and with Conservative-Republican preference, but in the opposite direction. Furthermore, Study 2 demonstrated quite surprisingly that all Big Five personality relations to Conservative-Republican preference were eliminated when handedness was controlled in multiple regression equations. For all regression equations, the global Moran's I test specifically developed for detecting residual spatial autocorrelation indicated no significant spatial autocorrelation.

State Resident Neuroticism Accounts for Life Satisfaction Differences Between Conservative and Liberal States of the USA.

Past research indicates associations between higher conservatism and higher life satisfaction, lower neuroticism and higher life satisfaction, and higher conservatism and lower neuroticism. Qualified deduction led to the following hypothesis: Neuroticism can account for the association between higher conservatism and higher life satisfaction. The 50 American states served as the units of analysis. Responses of 619,397 residents to the 44-item Big Five Inventory in an internet survey conducted from 1999 to 2005 provided mean neuroticism scores for each state. Conservative-liberal leaning of over 84,000 respondents to CBS News/New York Times polls from 1999 to 2003 and the percent voting Republican in each state in the 2000 to 2008 presidential elections combined to form a conservatism score for each state. The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index provided life satisfaction scores for over 1,000,000 respondents, transforming to a 2008 to 2010 composite score for each state. In a sequential multiple regression equation with life satisfaction as the criterion, state socioeconomic status and white population percent entered first as a block, conservatism entered second, and neuroticism entered third, the demographic controls accounted for 45.7% of the variance, conservatism accounted for another 10.4%, and neuroticism accounted for an additional 10.6%. However, with the entry order of conservatism and neuroticism reversed, neuroticism accounted for another 19.6% but conservatism accounted for only an additional nonsignificant 1.4%. Therefore, the hypothesis was supported. Three alternative explanations suggested by other researchers were not supported in the state-level analysis.

Higher USA State Resident Neuroticism Is Associated With Lower State Volunteering Rates.

Highly neurotic persons have dispositional characteristics that tend to precipitate social anxiety that discourages formal volunteering. With the 50 American states as analytical units, Study 1 found that state resident neuroticism correlated highly ( r = -.55) with state volunteering rates and accounted for another 26.8% of the volunteering rate variance with selected state demographics controlled. Study 2 replicated Study 1 during another period and extended the association to college student, senior, secular, and religious volunteering rates. Study 3 showed state resident percentages engaged in other social behaviors involving more familiarity and fewer demands than formal volunteering related to state volunteering rates but not to neuroticism. In Study 4, state resident neuroticism largely accounted statistically for relations between state volunteering rates and state population density, collectivism, social capital, Republican preference, and well-being. This research is the first to show that state resident neuroticism is a potent predictor of state volunteering rates.

Comparing American State Resident Neuroticism and State Tightness-Looseness as Predictors of Annual State Residential Mobility.

State resident neuroticism and the Harrington and Gelfand state tightness-looseness dimension were compared as predictors of state levels of residential mobility from 2004 to 2005 in the 50 American states. Hierarchical multiple regression controlled for state SES, white population percent, urban population percent, home ownership percent, and percent of home owners or renters paying 30 percent or more of household income for housing. Not moving was associated with higher neuroticism but not with tightness-looseness. Same-county moving, different-county moving, and within-state moving was associated with lower neuroticism but tightness-looseness was unrelated to any of these three criteria. However, lower tightness was associated with different-state moving and higher tightness was associated with greater tendency to move within a state rather than to a different state. Neuroticism showed no relation to the ratio of different-state to same-state moving. Results suggest distance moved may determine when neuroticism or tightness-looseness is a residential mobility predictor.

Life Expectancy Can Explain the Precocity-Longevity Hypothesis Association of Early Career Success and Early Death.

The precocity-longevity hypothesis that those who reach career milestones earlier in life have shorter life spans was tested with the 430 men elected to serve in the House of Representatives for the 71st U.S. Congress in 1929-1930 who were alive throughout 1930. There was no tendency for those first serving at an earlier age to die sooner or those serving first at a later age to die later than expected based on individual life expectancy in 1930. Although age at first serving was correlated with death age, the correlation was not significant when expected death age was controlled. The results cast serious doubt on the contention of the precocity-longevity hypothesis that the developmental aspects of the prerequisites, concomitants, and consequences of early career achievement peaks actively enhance the conditions for an earlier death.

Big five personality and residential mobility: a state-level analysis of the USA.

Relations of the state-aggregated Big Five personality scores of 619,397 residents to four 2005 state-level residential mobility criteria were examined with the 50 states as cases. Multiple regression controlling for five state demographic variables showed (a) higher state neuroticism was strongly associated with lower mobility, lower same-county mobility, and lower between-county mobility; (b) higher state extraversion was associated with lower mobility and lower same-county mobility, but only with neuroticism and/or conscientiousness controlled; and (c) conscientiousness was related to same-residence, same-county, and different-county mobility, but only without demographic variables controlled. Discussion is grounded in the dangers of cross-level speculation and the potential of a basic assumption of geographical psychology that an area's aggregate position on a dispositional variable is associated there with behavioral and psychological tendencies related to that variable.

Happy Twitter tweets are more likely in American states with lower levels of resident neuroticism.

Relations between Big Five personality scores aggregated at the American state level and the happiness of Twitter tweet content emanating from each of the 50 American states were explored with the 50 states as the units of analysis. Tweet happiness correlated negatively with Neuroticism, and the relation remained when partial correlation and multiple regression adjusted and controlled for state socioeconomic status, white population percent, and urban population percent. In contrast, state levels of Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and Agreeableness showed no relation to state levels of the happiness of tweet content.

Personality and American state differences in obesity prevalence.

The study was conducted to determine whether state obesity-prevalence rates can be predicted by state differences in residents' levels on the Big Five personality variables (O. P. John & S. Srivastava, 1999). State obesity prevalence was the mean percentage of the state population from 2000 to 2005 with a body mass index > or = 30.0 as assessed by the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010), which currently interviews more than 350,000 adults annually. State neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness z scores, based on the responses of 619,397 residents to an Internet survey from 1999 to 2005, were taken from P. J. Rentfrow, S. D. Gosling, and J. Potter (2008). Alaska, Hawaii, and North Dakota had scores outside -3 and +3 standard deviations on at least 1 variable and were excluded as outliers. For the 47 remaining states, state obesity prevalence was significantly correlated with neuroticism (.35), agreeableness (.38), openness (-.44), socioeconomic status (-.74), white percentage (-.34), and urbanization (-.43). Multiple regression analysis showed that socioeconomic status could account for 54.0% of the criterion variance and that agreeableness, neuroticism, and openness together could account for another 17.1%.

Do state laws concerning homosexuals reflect the preeminence of conservative-liberal individual differences?

The present study was conducted to determine whether individual-level correlates of sexual prejudice (i.e., conservatism-liberalism, religious fundamentalism, educational levels, urbanism, income, and living in the South) are predictive at the state level of laws restricting homosexual behaviors and desires. Criterion 1 was a multifaceted index of state laws concerning gay men and lesbians; Criterion 2 was an index of state laws regarding same-sex partnerships. Multiple regression strategies showed that state conservatism-liberalism, as determined from the responses of 141,798 individuals aggregated at the state level (Erikson, Wright, & McIver, 1993), was the prime state-level predictor of both criteria. For Criterion 1, only Southern state status accounted for additional variance (4.2%) above the 54.8% already accounted for by conservatism-liberalism. For Criterion 2, no other variables accounted for variance beyond the 44.6% accounted for by state conservatism-liberalism.

Florida creativity index scores, conservatism, and openness in 268 U.S. regions.

This study assessed whether Florida's Creativity Index (2002) scores for 268 U.S. regions were related to levels of conservatism and openness in the states in which the regions were situated. State conservatism was measured as the percentage voting for Bush in 2000. State openness z scores were taken from a survey of 619,397 residents (Rentfrow, Gosling, & Potter, 2008). Creativity scores correlated negatively with conservatism (r = -.22) and positively with openness (r = .23). Regression showed that the two predictors accounted jointly (7%) and separately for significant variance in the Creativity Index. The findings contribute evidence for the construct validity of Florida's composite Creativity Index and some, albeit moderate to weak, support of the Rentfrow, et al. conclusion that state-aggregated openness reflects the unconventionality, tolerance, and creativity of a state.

Suicide, big five personality factors, and depression at the American state level.

The research determined the relation of the 2004-2005 American state suicide rates to state means on neuroticism, agreeableness, extraversion, openness, and conscientiousness as assessed by Rentfrow, Gosling, and Potter (2008). Multiple regression strategies were used to analyze relations between state suicide rates and state personality means with state socioeconomic status, White population percent, urban population percent, and depression rates controlled. Multiple regression analysis showed that neuroticism accounted for 32.0% and agreeableness another 16.3% of the variance in suicide rates when demographics and depression were controlled. Lower neuroticism and lower agreeableness were associated with higher suicide rates. Lower neuroticism and lower agreeableness may be important risk factors for completed suicide but not suicidal ideation or attempted suicide.

Subjective well-being, personality, demographic variables, and American state differences in smoking prevalence.

INTRODUCTION: The present study was conducted to determine relations between smoking prevalence, subjective well-being, and the Big Five personality variables at the American state level. METHOD: State smoking prevalence was based on the responses of more than 350,000 adults interviewed in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System in 2008. Subjective well-being was based on the state-aggregated responses of 353,039 adults to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index phone interviews during 2008. Big Five variables were based on the state-aggregated responses of 619,397 persons to an Internet survey between 1999 and 2005, which included the 44-item Big Five Inventory. RESULTS: Well-being and smoking prevalence were negatively correlated and remained so when state Big Five, socioeconomic status (SES), White population percent, urban population percent, and median age were controlled in a partial correlation. Hierarchical and stepwise multiple regressions showed (a) that SES and neuroticism were the prime predictors of well-being, (b) that well-being was the prime predictor of smoking prevalence, and (c) that openness to experience was the sole personality or demographic variable to account for differences in smoking prevalence when well-being was controlled, and it explained very little of the remaining variance. DISCUSSION: Applied implications for state-tailored attempts to reduce smoking are briefly discussed, and suggestions for future research directions are put forward.

Authoritarianism, conservatism, racial diversity threat, and the state distribution of hate groups.

On the basis of K. Stenner's (2005) authoritarian dynamic theory, the author hypothesized that there is an interaction between U.S. state conservatism-liberalism and state racial heterogeneity threat, such that greater diversity threat tends to be associated with more hate groups in more conservative states and fewer hate groups in more liberal states. State aggregates of the conservative-liberal ideological preferences of 141,798 participants from 122 CBS News/New York Times national telephone polls conducted between 1976 and 1988 (R. S. Erikson, G. C. Wright, & J. P. McIver, 1993) served as proxies for authoritarian-nonauthoritarian dispositions. For the 47 states with complete data, the hypothesized interaction was tested for 2000, 2005, and 2006 with hierarchical multiple regression strategies and supported. The author's hypothesis was also affirmed with SES and the interaction of SES and diversity threat controlled for. In contrast, SES entirely accounted for simple relationships between threat and hate group frequency.

Political conservatism, authoritarianism, and societal threat: voting for Republican representatives in U.S. Congressional elections from 1946 to 1992.

The author found that the degree of national societal threat preceding congressional elections from 1946 to 1992 was positively associated with the mean state percentage of people voting for Republican representatives, supporting a conventional threat-authoritarianism hypothesis. However, threat was positively associated with the mean state percentage of people voting for Republican representatives in conservative states but not in liberal states, and the conventional threat-authoritarianism link was entirely driven by the relation in conservative states. The author classified states with a composite measure (alpha = .92) on the basis of state ideological identification, religious fundamentalism, composite policy liberalism, Republican Party elite ideology, and Democratic Party elite ideology. These results offer support to an interactive threat-authoritarianism hypothesis derived from the authoritarian dynamic theory of K. Stenner (2005), which postulates that only authoritarian persons are activated to manifest authoritarian behavior in times of normative threat. Also, the author discusses potential alternative explanations on the basis of system justification, need for closure, and terror-management theories.

Authoritarian personality and rape sentence length in conservative and liberal states.

The author tested the claim that authoritarians desire exceptionally strong punishment for rapists. Given data on 55,966 felons sentenced in 32 U.S. states in 1986 for homicide, rape, assault, robbery, burglary, larceny, and drug offenses (D. A. Bowers & J. L. Waltman, 1993) and given state conservatism scores of 141,798 respondents to 122 1976-1988 CBS and The New York Times national telephone polls (R. Erikson, G. Wright, & J. McIver, 1993) as proxies for authoritarianism, regression analyses showed state conservatism accounted for 18.9%, F(1, 18) = 7.11, p < .01, of the rape sentence length variance when sentence lengths for the 7 other offenses were controlled for and 12.5%, F(1, 27) = 8.16, p < .01, with means substituted for missing data. In both analyses, state conservatism and rape sentence length were positively correlated.

Societal threat, authoritarianism, conservatism, and U.S. state death penalty sentencing (1977-2004).

On the basis of K. Stenner's (2005) authoritarian dynamic theory, it was hypothesized that the number of death sentences and executions would be higher in more threatened conservative states than in less threatened conservative states, and would be lower in more threatened liberal states than in less threatened liberal states. Threat was based on state homicide rate, violent crime rate, and non-White percentage of population. Conservatism was based on state voter ideological identification, Democratic and Republican Party elite liberalism-conservatism, policy liberalism-conservatism, religious fundamentalism, degree of economic freedom, and 2004 presidential election results. For 1977-2004, with controls for state population and years with a death penalty provision, the interactive hypothesis received consistent support using the state conservatism composite and voter ideological identification alone. As well, state conservatism was related to death penalties and executions, but state threat was not. The temporal stability of the findings was demonstrated with a split-half internal replication using the periods 1977-1990 and 1991-2004. The interactive hypothesis and the results also are discussed in the context of other threat-authoritarianism theories and terror management theory.