JONAS HAFNER
GETTY IMAGES
Mountain Peaks
Seem to Shape
Personality Traits
in the American
West
Topography may contribute to the
formation of regional temperament
The designation “mountain man”
conjures an image of a rough,
bearded, possibly grimy white man
living ruggedly and adventurously
amid trees, snow, deer and the
occasional bear. Although most
people who live in the U.S.’s mountain
states today do not reflect this narrow,
stereotypical extreme, the peaks that
surround them may shape personality
traits that resonate with the persona.
Findings published in Nature
Human Behaviour on September 7
suggest that mountainous land-
scapes may promote openness to
new experiences among the people
who live in them. But the authors also
reported that denizens of the slopes
scored lower for other traits, such as
agreeableness and extraversion—in
keeping with the stereotype of the
laconic individualist that has often
been portrayed in Westerns. The spir-
it of adventure seems to come with
an embrace of solitude and isolation,
all traits that may help adaptation to
these harsh environments.
Although the results seem to
confirm that mountains can shape
some aspects of a “mountain
adventurer,” the impact—what
re searchers call the effect size—for
any one individual might be small,
says the study’s first author Friedrich
Götz, a Ph.D. candidate and psychol-
ogist at the University of Cambridge.
Not every single person living along
NEWS
