Residents in coal-mining areas ‘more negative’

PEOPLE living in areas that historically relied on coal-based industries are more likely to experience negative emotions such as anxiety and depressive moods, a study has found.

Researchers analysed data from almost 400,000 personality tests from people across England and Wales, collected during 2009-11 as part of the BBC Lab’s online Big Personality Test.

They found those living in former industrial heartlands of England and Wales are more disposed to negative emotions and are more impulsive.

Findings published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology indicate that areas which relied on coal-based industries in the 19th century retain a “psychological adversity”.

Researchers suggest this was brought about by selective migrations during mass industrialisation, and the effects of severe work and living conditions.

Those moving to industrial areas were often seeking employment to escape poverty, and had high levels of “psychological adversity”, while those leaving probably had higher levels of optimism and psychological resilience, the study said.

This may have concentrated negative personality traits, which could be passed down the generations.

It would have been exacerbated by repetitive, dangerous and exhausting labour from childhood – reducing wellbeing and elevating stress – combined with harsh conditions of overcrowding and atrocious sanitation during the age of steam. Strong trends were found, despite controls for other possible influences – from competing economic factors in the 19th century and earlier, through to modern considerations of education, wealth and even climate.

Co-author Dr Jason Rentfrow, of Cambridge University, said: “Regional patterns of personality and wellbeing may have their roots in major societal changes under way decades or centuries earlier, and the Industrial Revolution is arguably one of the most influential and formative epochs in modern history.

“Those who live in a post-industrial landscape still do so in the shadow of coal, internally as well as externally. This study is one of the first to show that the Industrial Revolution has a hidden psychological heritage, one that is imprinted on today’s psychological make-up of the regions of England and Wales.”

The team analysed the personality test scores by looking at the “big five” traits – extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness. Data was broken down by region and county, and compared with several other large-scale data sets including coalfield maps and a male occupation census of the early 19th century.

Neuroticism was, on average, 33% higher in areas where large numbers of men had been employed in coal-based industries from 1813-20 – as the Industrial Revolution was peaking – compared with the rest of the country.

In the “big five” model, this translates as increased emotional instability, proneness to worry or anger, as well as higher risk of common mental disorders such as depression and substance abuse.