It’s probably good to be wary of generalizations about people and places. But there’s some truth to a new study that identifies personality traits of U.S. states.
Kansas was No. 5 in “conscientiousness,” according to the listing. And we scored high in values of discipline, duty and faith.
OK, maybe we’re not the life of the party. But Kansas deserves credit for being a place of hardworking, down-to-earth, dependable folks who will do what they say they’re going to do.
Still, we might want to loosen up a bit: Kansas is No. 38 in “openness” — traits such as intellectual curiosity and artistic creativity.
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H’mmm … I wonder who paid for this study and how were the traits determined? Pretty general results. Somehow I doubt its accuracy or even usefullness. Hope taxpayers didn’t pick up the tab.
I know … usefulness has one “l,” not two. Just trying to trick spellers among our WE Bloggers.
Ah Kansas; where wit, intelligence and education are negative qualifications.
“traits such as intellectual curiosity and artistic creativity”
Ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha!
How did Kansas score for intelligence, compassion and generosity?
Not well I would guess. Given the general red nature of the state.
Just go up East and you’ll kiss the ground when you get home. I prefer not to live in a place where people are living on top of each other, never make eye contact, and are rude as hell.
The West coast isn’t much better. Let them have their “creativity”…I prefer to live where people are warm, friendly, and generous.
Kansans are very generous, JR…you haven’t been around the country much, have you?
Why doesn’t it tell who did the study? It already has lost it’s credibility. I think we live in such a time where the people who do studies collect only the data they need to further their own agenda. I would not rely so heavily on studies or polls since the data is usually flawed either by purpose or just by the very nature that there are too many variables.
LIBERAL Kansans are very generous Mary.
Problem is there is so damned few of them.
I cannot wait to get out of here and head for bluer pastures.
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out Bluej.
You did not see the same cooperation and assistance after Katrina that you saw in Greensburg. Kansas is a great place to raise a family.
There are Republicans and Democrats that are very generous to our communities.
You are just so negative that you would not know a good thing if it hit you upside the head. How sad for you.
Just go up East and you’ll kiss the ground when you get home. I prefer not to live in a place where people are living on top of each other, never make eye contact, and are rude as hell.
I used to think the same, Mary, but when I was in NYC a few years ago, I got a different impression. A friend and I were sightseeing in Lower Manhattan, looking for a particular store and pulling out our street map to check our location. At least three people stopped to ask if they could help us find something and gave directions.
Even our subway rides were different than I remembered from 40 years before. Three big young men stepped into the subway car and stood looking at the other passengers. One of them said, in a booming voice, “It’s too quiet in here.” I remember thinking that I might as well kiss my @ss goodbye. We were done for, murdered on the NYC subway. When they broke into song, the beautiful harmony was breathtaking. When they were finished, a cup was passed around for contributions. The four of us definitely added to it, not from fear, but for the great performance. Panhandling? Yeah, but it sure beat the panhandlers in Denver the year before.
I’m more than ready to go back for a visit.
Still, we might want to loosen up a bit: Kansas is No. 38 in “openness” — traits such as intellectual curiosity and artistic creativity.
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I would question the rankings of intellectual curiosity and artistic creativity.
Evidently, the surveyor, Jason Rentfrow or Scholfield hasn’t really explored Kansas.
Although not ranked with Picasso, there are thousands of china painters, quilters and home crafters in Kansas. I find that very artistic.
Intellectual curiosity? How the heck does one measure that? That’s like a per person basis isn’t it?
Don’t get me wrong..I love to visit, DC is one of my favorite places. But still, people generally aren’t as friendly as in the Midwest. The one thing I really notice in big cities is that people don’t make eye contact on the street much.
And I’ve had run ins with a few bus drivers in San Francisco…if you want to see a really mean ass person…just catch a bus there.
Once I did my own sociology experiment in Washington DC…For a week I took the subway everywhere, and I noticed how segregated the trains were..the blacks all on one and the whites on another…I rode with the whites for the first few days and eveyone just looked ahead and no one talked to each other, very quiet and reserved. So I decided to ride with the blacks one day…and everyone was laughing and talking and, they asked me where I was from and even offered me gum…so it’s mostly the white people who have a corn cob up their ass in DC….I rode with the blacks after that and had a great time.
“Just go up East and you’ll kiss the ground when you get home. I prefer not to live in a place where people are living on top of each other, never make eye contact, and are rude as hell.” — Mary Caruso
I guess it depends on what you expect. I never found a more wonderful place than Paris, France. Yes, I encountered the utmost rudeness, but I found a lot of people who were very interesting and friendly, too. The same goes for New York City. Wonderful, witty conversations with people I’d just met.
You can move into a small Kansas town, live there ten years, and never get invited into a home and never talk about anything but cattle and wheat. I know; that’s the normal experience for half a dozen outsiders in one central Kansas town I lived in. We got together and talked about it; our own little clique
In my present little Kansas town, people seem to like me. I was shocked for a while, and didn’t quite know how to act. I think it’s all because of my granddaughter. She brings kids home with her, I teach them guitar, let them beat on the keyboards, and show them how to use the chin-up rings in the basement, and let them scream into the microphones, and they go home and tell grandma. (Yes, p.m., there’s little pre-teens in my house all the time — Haw, haw, haw, and they turn me on because they are beautiful and THEY LEARN.)
Grandma works at the grocery. “Well how are you Beber,” she screeches. It took me a while to get used to it, but I sure as hell like it.
So the point is: circumstances sure make a difference.
But watch out for those homogeneous ethnic communities. They’ll hate before you get there, and will still be spewing lies and spittle, 20 years later.
“so it’s mostly the white people who have a corn cob up their ass in DC….I rode with the blacks after that and had a great time.” — Mary Caruso
It’s true Mary; white people do have a corn cob up their ass. I ran across a black talk radio show on XM the other day. Instead of being hate-filled, it was full of love, life and laughter. I almost bawled to hear reasonable human beings having fun together.
There’s an overwhelming guilt about us, perhaps for having so much when the world has so little. That’s why Mexico is so refreshing. The people work harder than a white American can imagine, and have so little, yet they are happier. The miserable Mexicans are often those who are hustling us white guys. Their self-loathing is almost palpable, but then there’s all that money to be made. Those Mexicans really do hate us.
“I would question the rankings of intellectual curiosity and artistic creativity.
Evidently, the surveyor, Jason Rentfrow or Scholfield hasn’t really explored Kansas.” — the wefu
As the wefu is such an example of creativity.
“You did not see the same cooperation and assistance after Katrina that you saw in Greensburg. Kansas is a great place to raise a family.” — the wefu
Had they just divided the assistance the people of Greensburg received and written everyone a check, they could have all retired to somewhere interesting like New Orleans. However, the same thing might go for Katrina victims, if the assistance had gone to them instead of Republican contractors.
The generalizations of this “study” are simply that, generalizations. Having traveled, worked in, and spent quite a bit of time in every state and every major city in this country, I can state unequivocably that one size does not fit all.
One time in Houston I enountered several very rude people. Another time there, I found friendly outgoing folks.
I met people in Anchorage who were charming and others that were total jerks. I have worked with morons and brilliant people in Honolulu. Yes, the rudeness of NYC is legendary, but it can be surpassed by people in just about any city. There are also caring/concerned people in NYC. You cannot put a label on all people in one city or state.
This attempt at pigeonholing people based on one subjective study is fun for discussion and speculation, but doesn’t prove a thing.
btw…don’t let the door hit you on the way out, bj. Nothing forcing you to stay here…good bye.
I love Mexico too, Beber…but you have to stay away from the border towns. I love the coast, the people are so refreshing and the kids are allowed to be kids and are so well behaved…it’s a wonderful place. It’s true that people are happier there…but I find that in every country I visit…we have no idea just how stressed out we are in this country and how much pressure we’re under until we have the abilty to see from a different perspective. I could easily live the life of an ex-patriot. Anywhere in Central America would be fine with me.
“conscientiousness”
We have Tiller the baby killer and they call us conscientiousness?
I don’t hang in the border cities, Mary, although I like the one I can’t spell across from Brownsville.
Is living the life of an ex-patriot an intentional pun? Well, I love it either way.
In it’s odd way, it means the same thing.
When I fly back into this country I’m always glad to be home but it’s always a shock. “Welcome to the land of the zombies,” I think. So much fear.
Shortly after 9-11 it was awful
I meet a lot of Americans and Europeans when I travel South…they’ve left the stress and politics behind and have made a wonderful life for themselves. Life is too short…I can see myself doing the same thing one day.
I actually got depressed when I returned from Honduras last month…the first thing I noticed was all the political talking heads screaming at me on the airport TVs in the 36 hours and 5 flights it took to get back from a country that was only 6 hours away.
We are so manipulated and stressed out in this country..and what’s worse is we don’t even realize it until we go someplace else and see that life doesn’t have to be this way. We’re brainwashed into believing that we live in the greatest country in the world…it’s great for the politicians and the CEOs…but the average American is getting screwed everyday and is convinced they should be grateful for that privilege.
You’re right about the fear, beber. After 9-11 it was almost palpable. I would rather “check out” than live in fear.
Kansasns will do what they say they’ll do, and they can always be counted on to vote against their self-interest. Case in point, vote for mccain even though it’ll cost them jobs and treasure.
I suspect the coasts and border towns in Mexico are a bit different than elsewhere in the country. I spent a couple of weeks in the heart of Mexico. Aguascalientes and San Luis Potosi are about 200 miles from Mexico City (northwest and north) and have very few tourists. The vendors in the open markets went nuts when they saw us with our blonde and red hair. :) Except for a bit of a language problem with 18 kids from Kansas, they were friendly and courteous. (I especially liked the young bullfighters we met, one from Spain. ;) ) I learned a lot about Mexico and its people while there. The abject poverty left many of us in tears. Watching a woman sweep the dirt floor of her house is quite humbling.
But you have to remember this is how they’ve always lived…we make the mistake of comparing what we have with them…and it’s all about materialism. Mexican people as a whole are happier and less stressed, because they are much more connected with their community and families. We live in a big, rich country…but many of us feel very much alone.
“Case in point, vote for mccain even though it’ll cost them jobs and treasure” — predestined.
I’m not so sure about the treasure. I think McCain and Palin really do mean what they say about earmarks. If they were elected, I think the vetoes would really flow. Of course, that doesn’t mean much if you’re going to go right on having trillion dollar religious wars for the Jews.
I can’t understand for the life of me why the Jews should be treated any differently than any other Semetic ethnic group, but of course, I do know why. Because we think our heritage is the same as theirs, which it isn’t. Ours was just co-opted by adopting Christianity. Your grandpa ain’t Adam, it’s Olaf. (Which is probably a Jewish name.)
Jews are treated differently because of all of the fundies. We can either be friends with a couple million jews and have hundreds of millions of enemies, or not.
I have lived in Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Fransicso for a start. They were fun to live in, with lots to do. However, they were a closed societal group for the mopst part. Little real interest in knowing your name, or anything about you unless you were part of their growingup. Hard to break into their groups, even among neighbors. Mostly they had a wall built around them. Not a rude wall, just a wall of disassociation. Mostly due to the fact that people were generally crowded together, and very mobile. It was simply a defense mechanism. I will take the midwest. Perhaps more boring, but waay more friendly. and community minded. LA was everyone for themselves, San Diego was “let’s do it tomorrow” San Fransciso? San Fransico was just strange. (1973)
“But Kansas deserves credit for being a place of hardworking, down-to-earth, dependable folks”
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Describes JR to a T, doesn’t it?
Mexican people as a whole are happier and less stressed, because they are much more connected with their community and families. We live in a big, rich country…but many of us feel very much alone.
Mary, I agree about the community and families and how we in the U.S. feel alone.
But happier? Considering the influx of legals and illegals into this country, I’m not so sure. Determined? Yes. Doing it for the betterment of their families back home? Absolutely.
“Case in point, vote for mccain even though it’ll cost them jobs and treasure” — predestined.
beber, dear, that wasn’t my quote.
I will take the midwest. Perhaps more boring, but waay more friendly. and community minded.
littlejohn, could that be because you’re comparing huge cities to much smaller ones? Perhaps a smaller comparison would be better, such as neighborhoods of a huge city to small towns. And while I think small towns have lots of pros going for them, even they have their own small-mindedness.
Having the opportunity to visit several small towns in other states (compliments of our daughters’ college selection process and later selections), I have found that the folks in these small towns no different from those with whom I grew up with here in Kansas as a general rule. The good people of Northfield, MN are, if anything, more friendly to strangers than those in Wellington, KS. Much the same may be said for those living in Waterville, ME.
I will not dispute that these contacts were of limited duration, and I’ve no intention of pulling out of Wichita to move to either (just as I have no intention of moving to Kingman, Augusta, or other similar communities) to ascertain the acceptance of the townspeople of “strangers” over an extended period.
We also found the folks in Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN to be friendly, and ready to give assistance to some “flatlanders” trying to find our way around downtown in both of the Twin Cities. Similarly, the folks in Portland, ME went out of their way to be helpful to us when we were not sure just how to get to point B from point A.
Point? Some of the qualities described as being positives of Kansans are not exclusively limited to those of us residents of this state. And, the negative that is listed in the header isn’t necessarily limited to Kansans, but also exists, I believe, elsewhere, too.
“littlejohn, could that be because you’re comparing huge cities to much smaller ones? Perhaps a smaller comparison would be better, such as neighborhoods of a huge city to small towns. And while I think small towns have lots of pros going for them, even they have their own small-mindedness.”
I would have to agree. But, it is the only experience I have. And yes, small towns do have their own small-mindedness. Especially very small town. You will be “friends” with the community if you act as a friend. You will be part of the community if you take involvement in the communtiy. You will be a newcomer for many, many years. Your children will be one of their own. ANd they will gossip, and they will call you when your kids cross some “line of behavior” and they will know everything about you, including things not really true. But if your grandmother dies, they will be there will food, and sympathy. At least for the most part. But then, prove yourself an outsider, and you will be treated friendly and courteously, but you will never belong.
An example of “intellectual curiosity” in Wichita – “Hmmm … I wonder what the heck this little lever on the left side of the steering column is for?”
An example of “artistic creativity” in Wichita, KS – getting a decal of your favorite NASCAR driver’s number and pasting in the back window of your pickup truck.
heh War :)
Predestined: As I am the only person on this board who regulary attributes quotations and almost always provides sources I’m bound sometimes to make a mistake, dear.
Another example of “intellectual curiosity” in Wichita, KS – “Hey, how’s the weather here?”
beber, it’s okay. The correction was more for the readers than than you.
You have got to be kidding me. The vulgar childish one writes:
“As I am the only person on this board who regulary attributes quotations”
Your mind must be a dark and scary place, if you really believe that garbage. You? superior? give me a break.
“Don’t get me wrong..I love to visit, DC is one of my favorite places.”
Have to agree. I really liked D.C. much more than I thought I would. People there seemed very friendly and would quickly answer my hayseed questions. The people I was around were from all over the country, New York City, Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, etc., etc. I wonder if there is a similar distribution amongst the population of D.C. on the larger scale?
Loved riding the subway in D.C. – it was very fast and very cheap. I think it would be possible to get by without a car, if one lived in D.C. An odd thought for a Kansan, huh?
I was mainly in Chevy Chase, Maryland while in the D.C. area. It was a real upscale place, it seemed to me – and may not be reflective of the general D.C. experience.
The local people I talked in D.C. told me that D.C. was a dark blue spot in a blue state. Maybe another attraction for me.
beebear- “As I am the only person on this board who regulary attributes quotations”
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as long as they’re in the article you “cut and paste” any who…..
Something that I thought that was really interesting was the huge number of private security people who were all over Chevy Chase. It seemed to me that you could sacrely travel 100 feet in that town without having some inquiring eyes checking you out.
Loved riding the subway in D.C. – it was very fast and very cheap.
And CLEAN!
Of course, we can’t forget how the vulgar childish one does provide attribution for quotes..using his little childish made up word “the wefu” as the source for anyone who dares to disagree.
Immature and vulgar. Quite the combination. And, of course, the ULTIMATE response to anyone is to call them a “bush whore” and that solves everything.
“Of course, we can’t forget how the vulgar childish one does provide attribution for quotes..using his little childish made up word “the wefu” as the source for anyone who dares to disagree.” — the wefu
I gave attribution to nicknames for months, but gave that up as once a talking point had been stomped, another wefu would take up the same point, and run it into the ground. So why bother? You don’t make individual points, you only make talking points.
Half of the wefu still claims Saddam was responsible for 9-11, so why respond individually? I’ll admit that Sol Dev and a few other sometimes deviate, and if I find a deviation I’ll do you the courtesy of attributing individually.
It is obvious that the Kansas media was not part of the analysis.
How attention-grabbing