Personality-Homophily in Residential Choice

我们的个性预测我们自己选择进入的环境，例如，我们进入的情况、社会关系或工作。然而，人们不仅会改变他们的情况、社会关系或工作--他们还会频繁地改变居住地。举个例子，每年有15%的美国人口改变他们的居住地。个性是否也能预测我们自己选择的居住环境？这个问题具有深远的心理后果；然而，这个问题在很大程度上还没有得到回答。我试图在文献中弥合这一差距，并争辩说，个性特征是被忽视的决定居住选择的因素。具体地说，我得出的假设是，人们在居住选择(PHRC)中表现出同质性的个性，也就是说，他们选择自己进入其他具有相似个性特征的人已经居住的地区。调查PHRC很重要，因为从心理学的角度来看，有看似合理的理由认为，个性-同质性决定了住房选择。然而，现有的关于居住选择中的同质性的研究主要集中在社会经济特征和民族特征上，而完全忽视了人格特征。为了研究PHRC，我将重点放在五大人格特征上，并认为PHRC特别可能发生在开放的人格特征上。在三个工作包(WP)中，我将尝试演示PHRC并确定其边界条件和基本过程。WP1使用来自美国的大量横截面数据来证明PHRC的存在，并调查PHRC是否在地理上是普遍的和在时间上稳定的现象。WP2结合了两个国家(美国和英国)的横截面和面板数据，以复制WP1，并调查在什么条件下(例如，生活事件、搬家原因)发生PHRC。WP3使用一种新开发的实验装置来测试PHRC的潜在过程(人们是被结构特征所吸引，还是想生活在相似的人下面？)在一系列实验中。所有WPS都旨在揭示PHRC对居住选择的独特影响(即，超出既定的社会经济和种族选择影响)。如果PHRC对居住选择有独特的影响，这将产生深远的后果：首先，这将意味着地理个性差异不仅是既定选择效果的结果，而且(也)是心理选择的结果。另一方面，该项目试图证明，个性特征对于理解移动行为比之前认为的要重要得多。

Our personality predicts into which environments we select ourselves, for example, which situations, social relationships, or jobs we enter. However, people do not only change their situations, social relationships, or jobs—they also frequently change their place of residence. To illustrate, each year 15% of the US-population change their residency. Does personality also predict into which residential contexts we select ourselves? This question has far-reaching psychological consequences; and, yet, it is largely unanswered. I try to close this gap in the literature and argue that personality traits are an overlooked determinant of residential choice. Specifically, I derive the hypothesis that persons show personality-homophily in residential choice (PHRC), that is, they select themselves into areas where other people with similar personality traits already reside. Investigating PHRC is important, because from a psychological perspective there are plausible reasons to expect that personality-homophily shapes residential choice. However, existing research on homophily in residential choice has focused on socioeconomic and ethnic characteristics and neglected personality traits entirely. To investigate PHRC, I focus on the Big Five personality traits and argue that PHRC is particularly likely to occur for the personality trait of openness. In three work packages (WP), I will try to demonstrate PHRC and identify its boundary conditions and underlying processes. WP1 uses large cross-sectional data from the US to demonstrate the existence of PHRC and investigate whether PHRC is a geographically universal and temporally stable phenomenon. WP2 combines cross-sectional and panel data in two countries (US and GB) to replicate WP1 and investigate under which conditions (e.g., life events, reasons for moving) PHRC occurs. WP3 uses a newly developed experimental setup to test the underlying processes of PHRC (are people attracted by structural features or do they want to live under similar people?) in a series of experiments. All WPs are designed to uncover the unique effects of PHRC on residential choice (i.e., above and beyond established socioeconomic and ethnic selection effects). If PHRC has a unique effect on residential choice, this would have far-reaching consequences: For one thing, this would mean that geographical personality differences are not (only) the result of established selection effects, but (also) the result of a psychological selection. For another thing, the project seeks to demonstrate that personality traits are much more important for understanding moving behaviour than previously thought.