Personality Homophily in Residential Choice

The project examines whether individuals show personality homophily in residential choice, that is, whether they select areas in which people with similar personality traits already reside. Specifically, the project will analyse in three work packages whether, when, and why personality homophily occurs. Work package 1 uses large cross-sectional data from the United States to demonstrate for the first time the existence of personality homophily and to determine its spatial universality and temporal stability. Work package 2 combines panel and cross-sectional data from two countries (USA and UK) to determine under which conditions personality homophily occurs (e.g. life events and relocation motivations). Work package 3 uses a self-designed experimental setup to identify the underlying processes of personality homophily in a series of experiments (i.e. whether individuals are attracted to similar structural characteristics or whether they prefer to live with others who share their traits). Overall, all work packages aim to isolate the independent effect of personality homophily on residential location choice and to go beyond the discussion of ethnic and socioeconomic homophily.