The Neurotic East

Here's a conversation-starter: a psychological geography study of the US:

We present a theoretical account of the mechanisms through which geographic variation in psychological characteristics emerge and persist within regions... Results provided preliminary support for the model, revealing clear patterns of regional variation across the U.S. and strong relationships between state-level personality and geographic indicators of crime, social capital, religiosity, political values, employment, and health.

And so we discover that New Yorkers do actually have something in common with Appallachians: they're all neurotic:

 

The map of "openness" is after the jump:

Here's the full study (pdf link) by Peter J. Rentfrow, Samuel D. Gosling, and Jeff Potter.