Charleston, West Virginia sometimes gets confused with Charleston, South Carolina, but the city has just been given a dubious honor it won't have to share with anyone else -- the Appalachian city's residents have the messiest sock drawers in America, according to a study by the dating site Chemistry.com.
The distinction comes from a survey sent to 8 million Chemistry.com users that were analyzed by biological anthropologist Dr. Helen Fisher, the website's chief scientific advisor, using probing questions such as "How messy is your sock drawer?"
Amazingly, Fisher claims the folks most likely to have messy sock drawers are exactly the opposite of the people you'd expect. She says people with Type A, detail-oriented personalities have the most disorganized dressers.
"From my studies on temperament, I have found that the 'Builder' types -- which is expressive of serotonin -- are typically orderly, conventional, respectful of the rules and detail-oriented [but] have, in fact, the messiest sock drawers," she said. "And the 'Director' personality types -- which is expressive of testosterone and also predominantly male -- are actually the most particular about the state of their sock drawers.
"It's very revealing that the Builder type appears to be so meticulous to friends and neighbors, but behind closed doors, it's a whole different story."
Men tend to be more particular about the organization level of their sock drawer than women, Fisher added.
Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Ft. Smith, Ark.; Paducah, Ky. and Little Rock, Ark. are some of the other worst offenders, according to the survey.
Meanwhile, neatniks who want to ensure they meet someone with a neat well-organized sock drawer should put one foot in front of the other and head to Florida, which has the top five cities in the survey.
Miami residents have the neatest sock drawers, followed by the folks in West Palm Beach, Ft. Myers, Tampa and Orlando.
So is having the messiest sock drawers a selling point for Charleston, West Virginia? Not necessarily, according to Patty Bradley, the CEO and President of Charleston's Convention and Visitors Bureau.
"To be honest, we're more excited about a honor given to us by Blue Ridge magazine as the friendliest city in America," she laughed to AOL Weird News.
Bradley says more people are likely to think of Charleston because of the John Denver song, "Country Roads (Take Me Home)" than because of its messy sock drawers. And while she's taking the honor with good humor, she's not sure if it's a selling point.
"It's safe to say we won't be including this in any tourism brochures," she laughed.