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Abstract

Growing research in geographical psychology demonstrates that personality traits are not evenly distributed across space and that these regional differences shape important political, economic, social, and health (PESH) indicators. However, the majority of this work has focused on North American and European countries, limiting the cross-cultural generalizability of the findings. Addressing this gap, the present thesis moves beyond the West by investigating regional personality differences and their societal correlates across three culturally and geographically distinct nations: Colombia (n = 27,313), Japan (n = 51,098), and New Zealand (n = 42,151). In each country, individual-level Big Five personality data were aggregated to subnational regions and matched with a wide array of PESH indicators drawn from official local governmental sources. All analyses were preregistered and applied a three-pronged analytic strategy combining spatial regressions, Spearman’s rank-order correlations, and machine learning methods to ensure robustness of the findings. Our results revealed meaningful regional clustering of personality traits within each country, though the traits and clustering patterns varied cross-culturally. For example, while Openness to Experience was, consistent with prior findings, generally higher in or around urban regions, some rural areas in Japan and New Zealand also showed elevated levels. Comparative analyses with the United States and United Kingdom revealed both culturally specific (e.g., higher regional Openness to Experience predicted political conservatism in Colombia, whereas the opposite pattern was observed in the United States and the United Kingdom) and cross-culturally consistent associations (e.g., regional Conscientiousness with political conservatism; regional Extraversion with regional wealth and life expectancy; and regional Openness to Experience with educational attainment). These findings extend prior research by demonstrating that while many personality-PESH relationships are context-dependent, some patterns may generalize across cultures. Theoretically, the findings emphasize the need for greater cultural diversity in geo-psychological research. Practically, the results can guide more targeted and effective public programs based on local personality profiles. Together, these studies represent one of the first large-scale cross-cultural investigations of regional personality variation and its societal relevance, advancing a more generalizable understanding of personality across place and culture.