Human Personality Is Associated with Geographical Environment in Mainland China.

Recent psychological research shown that the places where we live are linked to our personality traits. Geographical aggregation of personalities has been observed in many individualistic nations; notably, the mountainousness is an essential component in understanding regional variances in personality. Could mountainousness therefore also explain the clustering of personality-types in collectivist countries like China? Using a nationwide survey (29,838 participants) in Mainland China, we investigated the relationship between the Big Five personality traits and mountainousness indicators at the provincial level. Multilevel modelling showed significant negative associations between the elevation coefficient of variation () and the Big Five personality traits, whereas mean elevation () and the standard deviation in elevation () were positively associated with human personalities. Subsequent machine learning analyses showed that, for example, outperformed other mountainousness indicators regarding correlations with neuroticism, while performed best relative to openness models. Our results mirror some previous findings, such as the positive association between openness and , while also revealing cultural differences, such as the social desirability of people living in China's mountainous areas.