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Well-being is a construct spanning multiple disciplines including psychology, economics, health, and public policy. In many ways, well-being is a nexus of inter-correlated variables, much like the g nexus. Here, we created an index of well-being for the geographical and political subdivisions of the United States (i.e., states). The measure resulted from hierarchical principal components analyses of state-level data on various hypothesized sub-domains of well-being, including general mental ability, education, economics, religiosity, health, and crime. A single, general component of well-being emerged, explaining between 52 and 85% of the variance in the sub-domains. General mental ability loaded substantially on global state well-being (.83). The relationship between global well-being and other important state-level outcomes was examined next. We conclude by offering parallels between the g nexus and the well-being nexus.

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Current research shows that geo-political units (e.g., the 50 U.S. states) vary meaningfully on psychological dimensions like intelligence (IQ) and neuroticism (N). A new scientific discipline has also emerged, differential epidemiology, focused on how psychological variables affect health. We integrate these areas by reporting large correlations between aggregate-level IQ and N (measured for the 50 U.S. states) and state differences in rates of chronic disease (e.g., stroke, heart disease). Controlling for health-related behaviors (e.g., smoking, exercise) reduced but did not eliminate these effects. Strong relationships also existed between IQ, N, disease, and a host of other state-level variables (e.g., income, crime, education). The nexus of inter-correlated state variables could reflect a general fitness factor hypothesized by cognitive epidemiologists, although valid inferences about causality will require more research.

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