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Although we like to believe that we are each the captain of our ship, the fact is, much of our behavior is influenced by outside factors such as climate and the general "lay of the land" in which we live. What this comes down to is a kind of Psychology of Geography. If you agree that who you are as an individual is really a combination of perhaps fifty percent your inner self and another fifty percent your surroundings, then it's easy to appreciate how regional foods and weather, standard of living and the physical characteristics of your neighborhood will all come together to determine your personality. It is for this reason that there are such concepts as regional characteristics or national character...despite sometimes-strident efforts to deny that such things even exist.
Just looking at the local diet may reveal insights into the local population. Are the indigenous types descended from a farming or a hunting culture? It's not without a kernel of truth that some old sayings catch on and You Are What You Eat is a good example. Just contrast a cold, barren place where packing in calories is essential to a hot desert area where spoilage is a problem. It's easy to see how a pig might be seen as a tasty rack of ribs in one and a symbol for filth and immorality in the other. So too, crustaceans snatched fresh from clean, icy water are a far cry from the rapidly decomposing creatures exposed to much higher temperatures. And if you're going to say that modern refrigeration makes this a mute point - don't! Internalized belief systems develop very slowly over countless generations so what happened over the past few decades is as nothing when firmly embedded beliefs - once based on fact - contend that God hates shellfish and truly abhors bacon.
And just as jet lag didn't exist prior to jet travel, traditional diets traveling from one part of the world to another can be a problem in a global village where otherwise nourishing soul food may not be the healthiest choice in mid-winter Detroit. Something like Surstromming (Swedish fermented herring) probably isn't a good choice anywhere or anytime but that's just a personal taste. And it's really hard to be light hearted and gay in an area with miserable weather. I have a friend in Wales who told me that it's rained for 39 of the last 40 days and - only partly joking - added that suicide has replaced soccer as their national pastime. Then too, think of the somber, brooding literature that has come out of Russia contrasted to the happy music and dance from the Caribbean.
The myriad ways in which geography might affect psychology would also include things like political systems. Consider cooler countries compared to hotter ones. London, for example, has been a more or less stable seat of power for centuries whereas a few months of consistent leadership in parts of Latin America are more the rule. Large countries with smaller populations can afford to be less rigid than smaller ones with a tightly packed population. Notions of personal space vary from nation to nation with a typical Englishman trying to stand two feet from a Brazilian who keeps moving in for his notion of a cozy conversational distance. Is it any wonder that diplomatic efforts sometimes fail? The Japanese are well known for their elaborate, formal ceremonies that cover almost all areas of social interaction. Put a cabinet minister from Tokyo together with a congressman from Texas and it's unlikely that they will share many common bonds. The congressman will have a long history of open space while the cabinet minister will have few words to express privacy. The former will tend to have a positive attitude toward innovation while the latter will come to place a high value on traditional ways of thinking and behaving. It's not surprising then, that child-rearing practices vary greatly from one part of the world to another and that adult populations reflect such differences. What I find odd about the Psychology of Geography is that so many people will, in an effort to be politically correct, deny that such differences between people even exist while, at the same time, rejoicing in the idea of diversity.
