A Story of Mountains and Valleys: Sinusoidal Relationship Patterns between Mountainousness and Basic Human Values

https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506211034966

Explanation

Since the past, mythical and majestic mountains have fueled widespread speculation about their influence on people's character.

Empirical evidence from this study shows that physical terrain is associated with increased personality traits in people, especially openness.

To confirm this, we extended this work into the realm of personal values, linking a new large set of personal value data (n = 32,666) to objective measures of altitude and mountainousness derived from satellite radar data.

According to partial correlation and conditional random forest machine learning algorithms, we showed that elevation and mountainousness are associated with increased conservation values and decreased hedonism. The effect sizes were generally small and comparable to other socio-ecological predictors such as population density and latitude.

Consistent with the dual-pressure model of ecological stress, these findings suggest that having an open personality may be the most adaptable in the mountains to support conservative values that promote a social order that effectively deals with and minimizes threats.