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View Full Version : The geography of personality - and the liberty-introversion correlation?




Andrew-Austin
09-10-2010, 01:54 PM
I was thinking about the correlation between the orientation towards liberty and introverted personality.. Not sure if I worded that right.. But you know how a disproportional amount of libertarians tend to be very introverted.. Which has been demonstrated in the personality-type polls on this very forum, and well people's own individual experiences. (link (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=254085))

More specifically I was wondering to what degree introverted personality is genetic, which lead me this wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraversion_and_introversion

Which happened to lead me to this study/article:



Certain regional stereotypes have long since become cliches: The stressed-out New Yorker. The laid-back Californian.

But the conscientious Floridian? The neurotic Kentuckian?

You bet -- at least, according to new research on the geography of personality. Based on more than 600,000 questionnaires and published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science, the study maps regional clusters of personality traits, then overlays state-by-state data on crime, health and economic development in search of correlations.

[Article goes on]



http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122211987961064719.html?mod=yhoofront#project%3D PERSONALITY08%26articleTabs%3Darticle

But what is more interesting is the map/graph, click the "interactive graphics" tab on the link.

Before looking though what state would you say is the most libertarian? New Hampshire right? Well the results of the study conformed with the introverted-libertarian pattern. New Hampshire came in second place as the most introverted state in the union behind Maryland, second place only by one point, so it could be off by one "point".

Statist Washington D.C. came out on the opposite end of the spectrum, as the third most extroverted region by two points.

Discuss. Why does there seem to be such a strong correlation b/w introversion and libertarianism? All these fucking statistics need some kind of theory.

teacherone
09-10-2010, 01:57 PM
Discuss. Why does there seem to be such a strong correlation b/w introversion and libertarianism?

anti-collectivists who view themselves as disconnected from others in terms of "social responsibility"--- who in fact deny the existence of society all together-- would predictably be introverted characters.

ninepointfive
09-10-2010, 02:11 PM
being introverted isn't the best for politics. Theory yes, politicking, no.

noxagol
09-10-2010, 02:20 PM
I think it has more to do with being repulsed by most people, who are not very liberty minded or whatever, than being actually introverted. Some people just want to be left alone and this is a core part of liberty.

Austrian Econ Disciple
09-10-2010, 02:25 PM
Rock on NH. :p

Andrew-Austin
09-10-2010, 02:27 PM
anti-collectivists who view themselves as disconnected from others in terms of "social responsibility"--- who in fact deny the existence of society all together-- would predictably be introverted characters.

I don't think its the case that people's libertarian or anti-collectivist leanings or values causes their introverted personality.

If anything it would be the other way around, not in some deterministic way of course, but it feels right to say that people who are already introverted have a greater chance of reflecting more on social problems and coming to libertarian conclusions. The tendency does not always hold sway of course, there are exceptions, but it seems to be there.

----

What do you mean by "deny that society exists"? I acknowledge that "society" is merely an abstraction but it is a useful one considering how social human beings are.. Society does pass on its values, there are collective norms that are passed down merely because they are collective norms.. I personally don't like this as an individualist because it most often means bad norms are passed down through blind acceptance, but the function isn't inherently bad. Wow I'm probably in the mood to ramble about anything right now. I guess I'm trying to say society exists in the sense that is an abstraction of the social patterns humans tend to follow. They are not determined to follow said patterns (follow society inoculated goals and values), and individuals can break with them, but the tendency clearly exists making the abstraction useful. Individualists/libertarians do not like this fact as much, but we would not protest if libertarian ideas started winning out, to the extent that the non-aggression principle became something people started adopting because the prevailing social momentum told them to.

We as libertarians and or individualists had to break with society's goals and values to come to the conclusions that we did, which is a pretty big step to take to differentiate oneself like that and join such a small minority. The correlating traits of an introverted person might help him/her take such a step, by having a greater ability to stand back from the crowd and reflect, etc.