Are your views influenced by where your live or do you live where your views fit best?

I quote from the Washington Post article that is accompanied by this map:

Professors Jesse R. Harrington and Michele J. Gelfand studied "the degree to which social entities are 'tight' (have many strongly enforced rules and little tolerance for deviance) versus 'loose' (have few strongly enforced rules and greater tolerance for deviance)" and then produced a ranking of each state from tightest to loosest.  (Among the various characteristics they used to define "tight" or "loose" included the use of corporal punishment in schools, the rate of executions, access to alcohol and the legality of same sex unions. You can read the full paper here.) 

While it's not exact, the tightest states tend to be the most solidly conservative/Republican voting and are largely clumped in the South and Southwest. The study's authors note that while "tightness" and conservatism are linked, they are not one in the same. And, there are states --  particularly in the western half of the United States -- that are quite conservative politically but on the "looser" end of the spectrum.

So I have lived in New York, Massachusetts, California and Maryland (as well as Chile and Colombia). All my states are very loose or pretty lose. No surprises there.