Personality, geography, and socio-demography: A Danish survey among adult men

Abstract

Personality may vary with geography and with socio-demographical determinants. Research is, however, limited to a few countries and often involves only selected groups of the population, like students. At the same time, electronic survey methods using authorities’ web platforms for communicating with citizens constitute an attractive new way of achieving data on a general population level. In this survey, we used the Danish authorities’ electronic mailbox solution, in order to investigate the variation of personality with geographical and socio-demographical characteristics. This is a secondary analysis of data from a web-based survey among Danish men aged 45-70 years in the general population. In total, 6,755 completed the survey (response rate of 30 percent), which included the ten item Big Five Inventory (BFI-10) as a measure of personality. The survey responses were connected to municipality-level register data. Among the five traits, openness showed the strongest geographical variation. Differences in personality scores--particularly in agreeableness and openness--were observed across regions and between the western and eastern parts of the country. However, these differences could be largely explained by sociodemographic variables such as age, marital status, and education. In conclusion, in this national web-platform based survey using a self-report personality measure in men, we found regional differences in personality. However, in agreement  with previous research findings, personality also was found to be associated with a variety of socio-demographic characteristics.