Not Too Neighborly Study: Oregonians Don’t Care For Californians But Think Highly Of Washingtonians

A researcher has some succinct advice to Californians thinking about moving north to Oregon.

“I would change my license plates real fast, and not wear any of those kinds of shirts that identify you as being from California,” said Glenn T. Tsunokai, a University of California-Riverside doctoral student in sociology.

Tsunokai’s new study of 319 Oregonians concludes Oregonians are prejudiced against Californians, finding their neighbors to the south to be competitive, superficial, calculating and impersonal.

But Oregon residents like Washingtonians, their neighbors to the north, rating them almost as nice as themselves.

Tsunokai first considered Oregon attitudes toward Californians when his parents bought a house in Brookings, near the California border.

His family found gracious, welcoming neighbors. But Tsunokai was alarmed when friends and acquaintances told horror stories about the callous treatment Californians receive in Oregon.

“It seemed everyone I talked to, from our librarians at the school to the secretary of my graduate program, had a nasty story about Oregon,” he said. “It intrigued me.”

Tsunokai knew of no research that focused on Californians as objects of prejudice. But there were plenty of studies examining prejudice toward blacks, homosexuals and other minority groups.

He took the same questions and substituted the word “Californians.”

The dark result: Oregonians assign to Californians a variety of unflattering personality traits that seem derived from TV sitcom caricatures: shallow, ruthless, competitive.

Asked the same questions about Washington residents, Oregonians described Washingtonians more generously.

Sixty-eight percent of Oregonians believe Californians would cause a negative change in their communities. This compares to 24 percent who thought Washingtonians would have a negative effect. The survey doesn’t say exactly what the negative changes would be, just that the sentiment is clear.

Fifty-three percent believe Oregon’s natural environment will deteriorate if more Californians move into the state. Only 30 percent think more Washington residents would mess things up.

Respondents were asked to describe a typical Californian using a menu of 14 characteristics. The most frequently cited were that Californians are superficial, competitive, impersonal and unconcerned about the environment.

Washingtonians, on the other hand, were described as law-abiding, considerate, cooperative and neighborly.

And Oregonians described themselves as charitable, trustworthy, law-abiding, considerate, cooperative and neighborly.

Still, Oregonians rejected questions that asked if they would favor policies keeping Californians out of their state. And 81 percent said they would not display a “Californians Go Home” bumper sticker.