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

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 wit...

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Main Authors: Søren Birkeland, Anders Haakonsson, Sören Möller
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Groningen Press 2025-08-01
Series:International Journal of Personality Psychology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ijpp.rug.nl/article/view/42400
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author Søren Birkeland
Anders Haakonsson
Sören Möller
author_facet Søren Birkeland
Anders Haakonsson
Sören Möller
author_sort Søren Birkeland
collection DOAJ
description 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.
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spelling doaj-art-7d1dc17175a144a7a70930e9deac1cd82025-08-26T12:44:35ZengUniversity of Groningen PressInternational Journal of Personality Psychology2451-92432025-08-011110811610.21827/ijpp.11.4240032067Personality, geography, and socio-demography: A Danish survey among adult menSøren Birkeland0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7857-3181Anders Haakonsson1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5076-3730Sören Möller2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0858-4269University of Southern Denmark & Odense University Hospital, DenmarkOdense University Hospital, DenmarkOdense University Hospital, DenmarkPersonality 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.https://ijpp.rug.nl/article/view/42400big fivegeographic variationpersonalitysocio-demographyweb-based survey
spellingShingle Søren Birkeland
Anders Haakonsson
Sören Möller
Personality, geography, and socio-demography: A Danish survey among adult men
International Journal of Personality Psychology
big five
geographic variation
personality
socio-demography
web-based survey
title Personality, geography, and socio-demography: A Danish survey among adult men
title_full Personality, geography, and socio-demography: A Danish survey among adult men
title_fullStr Personality, geography, and socio-demography: A Danish survey among adult men
title_full_unstemmed Personality, geography, and socio-demography: A Danish survey among adult men
title_short Personality, geography, and socio-demography: A Danish survey among adult men
title_sort personality geography and socio demography a danish survey among adult men
topic big five
geographic variation
personality
socio-demography
web-based survey
url https://ijpp.rug.nl/article/view/42400
work_keys_str_mv AT sørenbirkeland personalitygeographyandsociodemographyadanishsurveyamongadultmen
AT andershaakonsson personalitygeographyandsociodemographyadanishsurveyamongadultmen
AT sorenmoller personalitygeographyandsociodemographyadanishsurveyamongadultmen