The study, by Nansook Park and Christopher Peterson, used data collected through an online survey to identify whether personality traits were significantly different across cities and published their findings in the September issue of American Psychologist.

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For its salary survey it went beyond its members and combed through data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau and a master set of data developed by a compensation measurement company called Job Search Intelligence.

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Coe and Anthony Webb used data from the national Health and Retirement Survey to track spending and saving changes in 2001 through 2007 of individual households where the kids had moved out.

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