Cambridge University Study: "Londoners life satisfaction depends in part on whether their personality suits the place where they live" 20Jan15
Samuel Beckett wrote in the eighteenth century "when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life". Scroll forward three centuries and researchers at Cambridge University, the Academy of Finland and the Kone Foundation have found: - Such an individual may be living in the wrong postcode
- A person's life satisfaction depends in part on the match between their personality and the prevailing characteristics of the area in which they live
- One size does not fit all (see the Google Autocorrect map of London, right)
The BBC collected data from almost 600,000 people between 2009 and 2011 as part of their "Big Personality Test". Of these 56,000 were from individuals living in London.
The study of the London subset found: - geographical differences and clustering in levels of life satisfaction and certain personality traits
- people clustered around central and urban areas were the most open – and, to a lesser degree, the most extroverted – with levels decreasing when moving to outer regions
- openness is associated with broad interests and tolerance for alternative lifestyles and ideas, and that these dispositions are often thought to characterize residents of densely populated urban areas
- least agreeable areas were found in western central London, an area that has the highest crime rate, busiest pedestrian traffic, and some of the highest housing prices in the capital
- higher levels of life satisfaction in the most affluent regions of London and pockets of low life satisfaction in northwest, northeast, and south London
| Source: Londonist - Google Autocorrect results | 
