The Roman Empire shaped Europe like no other political entity in the history of our continent. Even today, the course of roads and borders can be traced back to the ancient Romans. And as a new study co-authored by WU researcher Fabian Wahl shows, the Roman Empire still influences people’s mindsets today: In Germany, the distribution of personality traits can be explained based on the course of the Limes, the Roman border wall – which also has a bearing on factors such as life satisfaction and life expectancy.

“Our results show, for example, that entrepreneurial personality types are more common in formerly Roman-ruled areas,” explains Fabian Wahl from WU Vienna’s Institute for Economic and Social History. The most likely explanation is that investments by the Roman Empire – for example in the road network, local markets, and mining – continue to have an impact today and are reflected in the psychological map of Europe.

Higher life satisfaction and life expectancy

The international research team behind the study, led by Martin Obschonka from the University of Amsterdam, looked at psychological data collected from over 70,000 Germans. They were able to identify regional clusters of certain personality traits, such as extraversion and conscientiousness, which are associated with higher life satisfaction, better health, and higher life expectancy. These clusters are all located south of the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes – the line of Roman border defenses built in the middle of the second century CE across what is now the territory of the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse, Baden-Württemberg, and Bavaria.

Other factors were considered too, but none of them explain the differences found as convincingly as Roman colonization: Neither the climatic conditions or the quality of the arable land, nor the availability of raw materials such as coal or the proximity to navigable waters and other trade routes match the data as well as the course of the Roman frontier wall built almost 2,000 years ago.

To further validate the results, the research team took the same methodology and applied it to the Netherlands, whose territory was also once crossed by a Roman border wall, the Lower Germanic Limes – and they found a very similar pattern.

 “Personality traits and levels of prosperity likely influence each other. This means that a period of economic upswing can act as a lever on future generations,” says study co-author Fabian Wahl. “This is also consistent with the results of an earlier study I was involved in. This research showed that in today’s Germany, more start-ups are being founded in areas that were formerly under Roman rule,” Wahl says.

The long-lived impact of the Eternal City

Due to the invasion of Germanic tribes, the Romans were forced to abandon the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes in 275/276. The Roman soldiers retreated to the areas south of the Danube and west of the Rhine. In total, the area known as the Agri Decumates, today home to the cities of Stuttgart and Frankfurt, remained a Roman province for only a little over a hundred years, and yet Rome’s influence can still be detected in the minds of its present-day inhabitants.

According to the researchers, the results can likely be generalized. Put in other words, the researchers expect that similar divides in personality traits can also be found in other former border regions of the Roman Empire – for example in Austria, where the Danube marked the empire’s northern border for around 400 years.

Detailed study results and further information

Obschonka, M., Wahl, F., Fritsch, M., Wyrwich, M., Rentfrow, P. J., Potter, J., & Gosling, S. D. (2025). Roma Eterna? Roman Rule Explains Regional Well-Being Divides in Germany. Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology.

Link to the study