Photo by Wili_Hybrid. Licensed under Creative Commons license 2.0.

Massachusetts drivers are voting with their rides. According to the insurance company Travelers of Massachusetts, the number of hybrid drivers in the Bay State rose 36 percent in the last nine months. The numbers, from the state's Registry of Motor Vehicles, show that there are 22,353 registered hybrid cars on the roads in Massachusetts today, compared to 16,477 last July. That's an increase of 5,876 hybrids, or about 653 a month. One reason Travelers is paying attention to these numbers is because they offer a hybrid driver's discount (up to ten percent) for vehicles and drivers in Massachusetts. Of course, the national company offers hybrid discounts to drivers around the U.S., and you can find out if you qualify at the Hybrid Travelers website. Details after the jump.

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I've been writing here at AutoblogGreen for almost two years now. Every now and again, I see a press release that gets my "the readers will have a field day with this one" senses tingling. What were some of the other announcements or stories fit this tingly category? The story about cars driven by first dates (both for the men and the women) certainly fit the bill. Bob Lutz's "crock of sh*t" statement, too. Today, we got another. The short of it is this: an online advertising / branding firm, Mindset Media, says that its proprietary psychographic standard reveals that hybrid drivers are, for the most part, highly creative, more liberal, "more open-minded, more spontaneous, and more assured of their ability to lead others." If that doesn't get a response, I've lost touch with y'all - that, or, you're putting me on :)

Anyway, here's what Mindset Media is claiming. Based on the results of a Nielsen's Online panel survey of hybrid drivers, the company has developed a "mindset profile" (yes, that's trademarked) for people who tool around with a gas-electric powertrain. The results are that these drivers are 78 percent more likely than someone in the general population to be "highly creative" and also have higher-than-average scores in those items categories listed above. iI Mindset Media's terminology, hybrid drivers are"Creativity 5s" and "Dogmatism 1s." Mindset Media's announcement (and explanation about what a "Creativity 5" is) is after the jump.