For years, Americans have caricatured Californians as spandex-wearing New Age disciples with a proclivity for hugging trees and an aversion to anything without wheat germ. This is, after all, the state that created an official task force to promote self-esteem.

But, as it turns out, some of those quirky - or perhaps more charitably, distinct - California qualities may be true. And a marketing professor at California State University, Sacramento, has some of the evidence to prove it.

Dennis Tootelian recently announced the results of a survey that has people outside the state no doubt saying: "See, I told you." Among his findings: 63 percent of Californians have actually hugged a tree; 24 percent have surfed; and 21 percent admit to enjoying mud baths.

"It turns out that Californians actually do a lot of the things that make up the stereotype," says Mr. Tootelian.

Granted, regional distinctions can be found in every corner of the land. Many New Englanders do exude a certain Yankee reserve and thriftiness, which is rooted in the puritanism of the past. Southerners do convey a distinctive charm, and Midwesterners, well, they're Midwesterners.

And here in California, trees do get hugged. Stretches of redwood forests and coastlines have apparently inspired those with a pioneering spirit to make bathing in mud a beautiful thing.

Tootelian admits the findings connected him with his own inner Californian. "I've never hugged a tree," he says, "but I've done most of the things the survey sampled, and so have lots of people I know."

Drawn to mine the truth out of "California Grown," an ad campaign that humorously employs state stereotypes to promote locally grown produce, the questionnaire surveyed 500 consumers in five California cities: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Fresno, Sacramento, and San Diego.

Of course, there are reasons behind Californian's proclivity just as there are reasons behind New Englander stoicism.

"I see tree-hugging as an aspect of California's greenness," says Kevin Starr, former state historian and author of a series of books on Americans and the California dream. "Moved by the state's natural diversity and grandeur, Californians have largely been protective of their state's environment."

After all, he points out, Yosemite was set aside as a national park in the 1860s under the grant that served as the legal foundation for America's state and national park system. The Sierra Club sprang to life in Berkeley, under the leadership of John Muir, widely considered the father of America's national parks. Ansel Adams, arguably the greatest landscape photographer of the 20th century, made his home here.

No surprise, then, that Californians openly express affection for their lofty, woody flora. And apparently rightly so.

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