Munich Personal RePEc Archive
In the shadow of coal: How large-scale
industries contributed to present-day
regional differences in personality and
well-being
Obschonka, Martin and Stuetzer, Michael and Rentfrow,
Peter J. and Shaw-Taylor, Leigh and Satchell, Max and
Silbereisen, Rainer K. and Potter, Jeff and Gosling, Samuel
D.
2018
Online at https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/89645/
MPRA Paper No. 89645, posted 24 Oct 2018 06:33 UTC
Industrial history, personality, and well-being
1
Obschonka, M., Stuetzer, M., Rentfrow, P.J., Shaw-Taylor, L., Satchell, M., Silbereisen,
R.K., Potter, J. & Gosling, S.D. (2018). In the shadow of coal: How large-scale industries
contributed to present-day regional differences in personality and well-being, Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 115(5), 903-927.
Link to published version of the article: http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2017-52083-001
In the shadow of coal: How large-scale industries contributed to present-day regional
differences in personality and well-being
Martin Obschonka
1,2
, Michael Stuetzer
3,4
, Peter J. Rentfrow
5
, Leigh Shaw-Taylor
6
, Max
Satchell
6
, Rainer K. Silbereisen
2
, Jeff Potter
7
, & Samuel D. Gosling
8,9*
1
QUT Business School, Queensland University of Technology,
2 George St, Brisbane, QLD,
Australia
2
Center for Applied Developmental Science (CADS), Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena,
Semmelweisstr. 12, 07743 Jena, Germany
3
Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University, Coblitzallee 1-9, 68193 Mannheim,
Germany
4
Faculty of Economic Sciences and Media, Ilmenau University of Technology, Ehrenbergstr.
29, 98684 Ilmenau, Germany
5
Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Str., Cambridge CB2 3EB,
United Kingdom
6
Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure, Faculty of History,
University of Cambridge CB3 9EF
7
Atof Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
8
Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA
9
School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia
*
Corresponding author
E-mail: samg@austin.utexas.edu
Author Note: This work is partly based on data provided through
www.visionofbritain.org.uk
and uses statistical material which is copyright of the Great Britain Historical GIS Project,
Humphrey Southall, and the University of Portsmouth; these data are freely usable under
Creative Common Licensing. We thank Thomas Talhelm and Michael Wyrwich for helpful
comments, and Maximilian Sobetzko and Eric Krüger for research assistance.
Industrial history, personality, and well-being
2
Abstract
Recent research has identified regional variation of personality traits within countries but we
know little about the underlying drivers of this variation. We propose that the Industrial
Revolution, as a key era in the history of industrialized nations, has led to a persistent
clustering of well-being outcomes and personality traits associated with psychological
adversity via processes of selective migration and socialization. Analyzing data from England
and Wales, we examine relationships between the historical employment share in large-scale
coal-based industries (coal mining and steam-powered manufacturing industries that used this
coal as fuel for their steam engines) and today’s regional variation in personality and well-
being. Even after controlling for possible historical confounds (historical energy supply,
education, wealth, geology, climate, population density), we find that the historical local
dominance of large-scale coal-based industries predicts today’s markers of psychological
adversity (lower Conscientiousness [and order facet scores], higher Neuroticism [and anxiety
and depression facet scores], lower activity [an Extraversion facet], and lower life satisfaction
and life expectancy). An instrumental variable analysis, using the historical location of
coalfields, supports the causal assumption behind these effects (with the exception of life
satisfaction). Further analyses focusing on mechanisms hint at the roles of selective migration
and persisting economic hardship. Finally, a robustness check in the U.S. replicates the effect
of the historical concentration of large-scale industries on today’s levels of psychological
adversity. Taken together, the results show how today’s regional patterns of personality and
well-being may have their roots in major societal changes underway decades or centuries
earlier.
Key Words: Industrial Revolution, regional well-being, adversity, Big Five personality traits,
historical factors
Industrial history, personality, and well-being
3
In the shadow of coal: How large-scale industries contributed to regional personality and
well-being differences
“And was Jerusalem builded here,
Among these dark Satanic Mills?”
- From the unofficial national anthem of England “Jerusalem” -
(Lyrics: “And did those feet in ancient times” by William Blake)
On December 18
th
, 2015, the miners of Kellingley Colliery in North Yorkshire, U.K.,
completed their shifts for the last time, finally bringing an end to production at the facility
(BBC, 2016). As the last operating deep coal mine in the U.K., the pit’s closure marked an
endpoint in the long history of coal-based industrialization that helped to create the
foundations of modern society. With the end of coal-based industrialization, we are left only
with relics of that bygone era, housed in museums such as the UNESCO World Heritages
“Völklingen Ironworks” in the Saarland coal region of Germany and the “Blaenavon
Industrial Landscape” in the old coal region of Wales, where visitors can learn about what life
was like in the once thriving centers of the Industrial Revolution. For the people who still live
in these old industrial regions there is no need to visit a museum to learn about the impact of
coal. Every day, they experience the persistent economic and social legacy of the rise and fall
of the large-scale coal-based industries. Here, we look at the evidence for another more
“hidden” legacy of coal: Sustained psychological consequences, affecting the well-being of
the populations now living in the old coal regions. A great proportion of the population of old
industrial nations still live in old industrial regions today (e.g., in the U.K. around 45% of the
national population; Office for National Statistics of the U.K.), so the issue is far from trivial.
There are compelling theoretical and empirical reasons for supposing that the massive
concentration of large-scale coal-based industries (e.g., coal mining and steam-powered
manufacturing industries that used this coal as fuel for their steam engines) could have left a
lasting psychological imprint in the local cultures of the old industrial regions. The Industrial
Industrial history, personality, and well-being
4
Revolution is widely associated with the staggering increases in manufacturing that were
facilitated by the technical improvements of the stationary steam engine as power source.
These changes had tremendous economic and social effects throughout much of the Western
World, but their impact was felt perhaps most strongly in old industrial regions; these regions
attracted the physical labor to staff the factories that were powered by the coal from the
nearby coalfields. Then, over a century later, as technologies advanced and coal reserves were
diminished, old industrial regions no longer had a place in the shifting economic structure and
entire populations were left without work. Consequently, these regions are now some of the
most economically deprived areas in highly industrial nations (Müller, Finka, & Lintz, 2006).
It is well documented that living in deprived areas can be harmful to one’s well-being and
health. Scores of studies converge to suggest that high unemployment and crime, and low
levels of education are related to depression and poor physical health, over and above the
effects of low family income (Cutrona, Wallace, & Wesner, 2006; Evans, Wells, Chan, &
Saltzman, 2000). Furthermore, people who live in economically deprived areas are at greater
risk for health problems, drug abuse, and obesity, which perpetuates poor health and
inequality (Banks, Marmot, Oldfield, & Smith, 2006; Glymour, Avendan
o, & Berkman, 2007;
Jokela, 2015; Marmot &Wilkinson, 2005; Nettle, 2010).
The present research seeks to cast light on the hidden legacy of historical massive
industrialization and the subsequent age of steam on the people who live there. Specifically,
we study the potential adverse effects on the psychology of the people living in these old
industrial regions. We argue that psychological adversity “runs deep” in these regions,
expressed not only in the actual well-being of these people but also in their personality traits
that are linked to well-being. We therefore first examine psychological adversity as it is
conventionally studied, in terms of diminished well-being (measured via life satisfaction and
life expectancy in our study). We also examine psychological adversity from a new angle,
focusing on some potentially more enduring adverse effects, in terms of changes to the
