LANDER - Wyomingites are some of the most closed-minded, disagreeable, unreliable introverts you'll ever meet.

But at least we're emotionally stable.

According to new research published in September in the academic journal Perspectives on Psychological Science, Cowboy State residents do not compare well to other Americans in the personality department.

But a University of Wyoming professor of psychology said this new study of personality traits at the geographic level - while interesting and seemingly well-conducted - is limited in what it can actually tell us about what people are like in a given state.

Based on a six-year survey of more than 600,000 U.S. residents, researchers have created "personality" maps of the United States.

Peter J. Rentfrow, a University of Cambridge lecturer in social and political sciences, led the research, which measured five personality traits and mapped their relative pervasiveness by state.

The study then ranked the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia in each category.

These were the five traits measured:

1. Extroversion - how outgoing and socially energetic people are.

2. Agreeableness - how friendly and cooperative people are.

3. Conscientiousness - how dutiful and reliable people are.

4. Neuroticism - how prone to anxiety and stress people are.

5. Openness - how open to new ideas and new experiences people are.

According to the study, Wyoming ranks second-to-last in the nation in terms of it residents' openness to new experiences, third-to-last in agreeableness and fourth-to-last in conscientiousness. On the other hand, the Cowboy State is one of the top 15 least neurotic places in the country.

Oddly, the states of South Dakota, Nebraska and Utah, which border Wyoming, are home to some of the friendliest and most agreeable people in America, according to the study.

And even though North Dakota is the only state less open to new ideas than Wyoming, it ranks first in the nation in extroversion, and first also in agreeableness.

Nearly all of the states that rated low in neuroticism were sunny, and stereotypically laid-back, Western and Midwestern states.

The research seems to reinforce some stereotypes about American regions and contradict others:

For example, New Yorkers do tend to be relatively neurotic, the study concludes, along with most folks who live in the "stress belt" in the Northeast.

But America's most neurotic state, according to the research, is West Virginia.

Other relatively impoverished states, such as Mississippi and Louisiana, also score high on the neuroticism scale.

"Although these are preliminary findings and require more evaluation, they did throw up some striking geographical trends," Rentfrow said in September. "Obviously it's not as simple as saying that a person is guaranteed to be more anxious if they come from West Virginia or more religious because they happen to live in New Mexico; but we did find pretty clear signs that there are meaningful differences in the personalities of people living in different areas of the United States."

Bum rap for Wyoming?

Walt Scott, professor of psychology at the University of Wyoming, said he found the study intriguing, but he warned it probably oversimplifies what's actually going on within states.

And in the case of Wyoming - especially when it comes to conscientiousness - the results likely do not tell the whole story, he suggested.

One basic limitation Scott sees with the study is this: All of the findings on personality traits by state are reported relative to each other, but not relative to any outside or "objective" measure.

That is, people living in the United States might be pretty darn agreeable just about everywhere you go - with some just slightly more agreeable than others. So even though Wyoming ranks 49th in "agreeableness," the people living here might still be rather friendly and cooperative on some sort of objective level, Scott said.

Another possible problem with the study is that the median age of the respondents was 24, which is a fairly young sample, he said.

Given those caveats, however, he said he wasn't surprised the Cowboy State received relatively low rankings in the traits of agreeableness and extroversion, if only for practical and historical reasons.

"Extroversion gets at how sociable, outgoing and energetic people are," Scott said. "We're a sparsely populated state, and a rural state. If you like lots of people, cities, loud music, lights, a lot of social stuff going on, you're not going to move to Wyoming. So there's probably some selective migration going on. Probably not a lot of extroverts were attracted to Wyoming (historically)."

People who enjoy their personal space, who like to avoid major metropolitan areas and who desire to get away from the crowds are attracted to places such as Wyoming, he said, and they can pass those traits on, genetically and culturally, to their descendents.

So it makes sense after years of selective migration that extroverts would tend to congregate in the densely populated areas and introverts would find their way to places such as Wyoming and Alaska.

As far as being agreeable, it's just not as important in a place such as Wyoming, Scott said, because there aren't as many people to please and cooperate with. Add to that a culture of rugged individualism, and it's not surprising that Wyomingites would score lower in agreeableness than many other Americans.

Scott was surprised, however, Wyoming ranked 47th in the nation in conscientiousness. He believes this result might have come from a flawed measurement of the trait itself, rather than it being an accurate reflection of what Wyomingites are like.

Scott is not from Wyoming, originally, and he's lived in different places throughout the U.S., and the study's conclusion that Cowboy State residents are relatively unreliable doesn't jibe with his personal experience, he said.

"Conscientiousness has to do with being reliable, organized, responsible," he said. "The questions might have favored being dutiful at work, being task oriented. But one of the facets of conscientiousness is being self-reliant, and I'd imagine if we looked at that, we'd find Wyomingites did pretty well."

The reality might be, as the study suggests, that Wyoming residents are less stressed out and more emotionally balanced than other Americans. And part of emotional balance might be a desire to enjoy life outside of work, Scott said.

So it's possible Wyomingites scored relatively low in the "dutiful" measure because they have other activities, such as hunting, fishing and general recreation that are also given priority, he said.

Gov. Dave Freudenthal read the study this week and said its conclusions don't jive with his experience living in Wyoming.

And he has serious doubts, he said, about the methodology of the research, in which "self-selected" people filled out a questionnaire on the Web.

The published report read like something developed by "academics in an office looking for something to write," he said, and the result was "frankly kind of weak."

The researchers were looking to be provocative and they succeeded in that regard, he said. The accuracy of the study, however, is highly questionable, and the authors themselves admit as much in several ways.

"It gives us something to think about, but I'm not sure I agree with it," Freudenthal said. "It's not consistent with my experience. You can go to a lot of places where people don't look at each other when they walk by. But people do that here. They greet each other. People here still stop to help each other."

'Off the beaten path'

Tom Throop, a retired public servant who moved to Lander with his family from Oregon 15 years ago, said he wasn't surprised by some of the study's findings.

The low rankings in traits such as extroversion and agreeableness simply reflect a culture that is different from what you might find in other parts of the country, Throop said.

"A lot of people come here because they want to be off the beaten path, not on anybody else's treadmill," Throop said. "That's why we came here. We definitely wanted to get off the beaten path, have less competition for our favorite hiking trails and fishing holes."

Tom's spouse, Caryn Throop, who teaches at Central Wyoming College, said some of the study's conclusions make sense to her, as well.

Cowboy State residents tend to be very neighborly, she said - the type of people who help strangers when their cars break down, or when they're stuck in a blizzard. At the same time, they tend to be reluctant to form coalitions or organizations in the interest of things such as community development, she said.

The study's finding that Wyoming residents are among the least open to new ideas in the nation also makes sense, Throop believes.

Wyoming is sparsely populated, and people here tend to have less direct exposure to different cultures and ideas than do many other Americans, she said. And there is only one university in the state, where most states have multiple four-year institutions. Universities can attract a diverse set of people from varying backgrounds, and they have a way of introducing a variety of cultures, perspectives and arts to their local communities, she said.

Del Nelson, of Hudson, said the study's conclusion that people in Wyoming are less reliable than people from most other states does not seem accurate to him. Nelson is a retired school teacher who moved here from South Dakota in 1969.

People in Wyoming are very similar to people from South Dakota, Nelson said, which scored high in the conscientiousness category.

Friends, neighbors and strangers can always be counted on to help each other out when help is needed here, just as in South Dakota, he said.

And although the study suggests that people from South Dakota are a great deal more agreeable and extraverted than people from Wyoming, Nelson suggests the differences between the two states are not actually that great.

"Wyomingites generally say what they mean," Nelson said. "And maybe they're not as open as other people when they first meet you, but once they get to know you, and it doesn't take long, they're just as easy to talk to as anybody else."

What might show up as "disagreeableness" in a personality study is probably just an old Western streak of independence, Nelson said, which most Wyomingites indeed have.

"People in Wyoming are pretty independent-minded and a little old fashioned," Nelson said.

He can remember a time when, in the fall, nearly everybody in Lander would be carrying a loaded gun, he said. He'd wear his revolver into the diner, people would have rifles in their vehicles and they'd stroll down the sidewalks carrying guns. Yet, the people got along just fine without incidents, and they trusted each other, he said.

To Nelson, the way people behave when they're all carrying loaded weapons says a great deal about how agreeable they are.

Contact reporter Chris Merrill at (307) 267-6722 or chris.merrill@trib.com