The research of whether personality traits are associated with location is something that interests me considering I just recently moved from the North to the South. Moving South has helped me learn to see many different traits that are associated as "Northern" or "Southern" qualities. For example, in the North the terms "yes ma'am" and "yes sir" are very rare, whereas in the South it is a common phrase and exhibits respect. However, people in the North do not like when people address them this way because it makes them feel old. It also makes them feel as if they are seen with higher authority than the person addressing them, when they want to be seen as an equal. For this reason people in the North are associated with being rude, whereas people in the South are seen as good-natured. This research did not change my values, but moving to the South has affected them. Moving South has given me more opportunities, such as youth groups, to grow closer to my faith and become a stronger Catholic because religion is stronger in the South. My personal experience regarding this question is that people from different locations stereotype who people are depending on where they are from. I have learned that people in the South associate people from the North as being rude and mean, whereas people in the North associate the South as having "Southern hospitality".  I am qualified to write about this research question because I have experienced living in both the North and the South, and have observed different traits associated with both locations. Living in both locations has also allowed me to be able to distinguish which traits in a person is a Southern or Northern characteristic.

The article of "Insult, Aggression, and the Southern Culture of Honor: An 'Experimental Ethnography'" by Dov Cohen, Brian F. Bowdle, Richard E Nisbett, and Norbert Schwarz, discusses how people in the South tend to be more aggressive than people in the North when insulted. This article is credible because the authors are psychology professors which makes them knowledgeable at reading emotion. This article was also published in May 1996,  which could have an affect on the credibility because it was published twenty years ago and our culture has changed since then. The main interest of this article is to see how males from the North and South would react to different experiments involving aggression. The researchers (authors) of the article predicted that Southern males would be more aggressive than Northern males because of the South's historical background. The boys in the old South were taught at a young age to defend their honor with no hesitation causing them to be violent, which could possibly be the reason for the personality trait of aggression to be linked to the South. The argument is backed up with data that is recorded through multiple experiments. In the first experiment someone bumped into the Southern and Northern participants and insulted them, while two other people recorded their expressions. In another experiment the participant was insulted, however, they were insulted publicly. This caused Southern participants anger levels to increase because they saw this as an insult to their reputation. Both results showed an increase in testosterone and Cortisol levels,which deals with aggression and stress. The overall results show how Southerners tend to be more aggressive and turn to violence more than Northerners. 

Another article similar to the previous one, is "U.S. Southern and Northern Difference in Perceptions of Norms about Aggression." Joseph A. Vandello, Dov Cohen, and Sean Ransom are the authors of this article and all study the emotion or reaction of a person in a given situation making this a credible source. The interests at stake for this article is to see how likely Southern and Northern males were to use aggression in certain situations. The bias of the authors in this article are that they thought Southerners would be more likely to get into aggressive situations and believed that their peers would be more involved in fights rather than themselves. One experiment conducted in this article was to see how likely Southerners and Northerners were to actively encourage aggression in others. They also attempted to predict the likelihood of their peers using aggression in a given situation. The overall results from the experiments showed that Southern males are more likely to get into a fight and assume that their peers endorse aggression. This article also claims the South is perceived to be more aggressive because of its historical background. In the old South men were taught to stand up to the slightest threat including insults to their character. 

The third article, "Stereotypes of Emotional Expressiveness of Northerners and Southerners: A Cross-Cultural Test of Montesquieu's Hypotheses," gives information about a hypothesis formed by Montesquieu that claims people in warmer climates are more emotionally expressive than those living in cooler ones. The authors of this article are James W. Pennebaker, Bernard Rime, and Virginia E. Blankenship. They deal with psychology and understanding people's emotions making this a credible source. The bias of the authors is that they support Montesquieu's hypothesis of residents in warmer climates being more emotionally expressive than those living in cooler ones. His hypothesis also claims that because of the warmer climate in the South it causes people to be more aggressive.  A survey was given to sixty different countries that asked four basic questions about how participants rate themselves as emotionally expressive or not. His hypothesis is proven true by the results of the survey showing that people in the South are more expressive of emotion and exhibit more contact than people in the North.  

These articles are similar to each other and all show results of the personality trait aggression being associated with the South. From these three articles one could argue aggression is a personality trait link to the South because of history from the old South or because of the warm climate. All three sources did find that people in the South tend to be more aggressive than people in the North. Through my personal experience I do agree with the articles when they say the South is more aggressive than the North in certain situations, but I think it depends on the individual. I also agree that people in the South exhibit more contact than people in the North. If I were to revise my research question I would change it to be more specific to my essay. For example, in article three it explains why the North and South are associated with certain traits so I could change my research question to ask why the North and South exhibit these certain traits. 

