[CornFed]

Perhaps it is more about us, as individuals, rather than any blanket quality of the respective regions.  I've always felt that I could probably live just about anywhere in the country and be wildly happy if I were among people with whom I feel close.  My general fondness for people from Iowa is probably very heavily related to my psychological/emotional/social/etc. profile, which in turn probably relates heavily to the fact that I was born and raised in that region. 

I really am skeptical that if you take a random sample of 100,000 folks from two selected regions and tried to compare them, that there would be a pronounced abundance of nice people in one and a dearth of such in the other.  I have very little doubt that each of us would probably find that we experienced one group as being nicer than the other, but that has to do with our personal package of preferences, assumptions, perceptions etc.

[CornFed]

Perhaps it is more about us, as individuals, rather than any blanket quality of the respective regions.  I've always felt that I could probably live just about anywhere in the country and be wildly happy if I were among people with whom I feel close.  My general fondness for people from Iowa is probably very heavily related to my psychological/emotional/social/etc. profile, which in turn probably relates heavily to the fact that I was born and raised in that region. 

I really am skeptical that if you take a random sample of 100,000 folks from two selected regions and tried to compare them, that there would be a pronounced abundance of nice people in one and a dearth of such in the other.  I have very little doubt that each of us would probably find that we experienced one group as being nicer than the other, but that has to do with our personal package of preferences, assumptions, perceptions etc.