How the American Frontier Shapes Us
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How the American Frontier Shapes Us Residents of these western areas more Republican, antitax, antiregulation / BY RICH BARLOW Easterners who heeded the 19th- Each decade a county was part of the frontier, century call to “Go West, young man” their paper notes, “is associated with 3.5 percent (and they were mostly men, given more votes for Republican candidates in presiden- ▲ A family during tial elections since 2000. This association ratchets the harsh frontier conditions) were the Great Western Migration, 1866. up over the 2000s as each election exhibits a proverbial rugged individualists. The frontier closed signifi cantly larger eff ect.” 130 years ago, but And as late as 1940—half a century after 1890, its individualist ethos continues when the US Census Bureau declared the fron- HAT’S NOT JUST HISTORY: RESEARCH BY to incline tier closed and the last time it tracked popular BU economists says those pioneers be- Americans living children’s names at the county level—families in T in old frontier queathed their cultural DNA to Americans counties to anti- longtime frontier counties chose more unusual who live in the same places today. government, names for their children, favoring Reuben and Even though the frontier closed almost 130 antitax, anti- Lucinda, for example. “We borrow our names- regulation years ago, the research by Samuel Bazzi and views, say BU based measure of individualism from social psy- Martin Fiszbein, both College of Arts & Sciences researchers. chologists, who note that individualistic types assistant professors of economics, and doctoral are prone to give their children infrequent student Mesay Gebresilasse (GRS’19) found that names, refl ecting a desire to stand out,” the people who live in American counties that had paper’s authors write. The paper was posted by the longest frontier experience exhibit the most the National Bureau of Economic Research. individualism in the 21st century. Residents of The upshot for the authors, says Bazzi, is that those counties tend to vote Republican for presi- culture can trump changing economic circum- dent, support lower property taxes and smaller stances, given that the frontier mind-set endures government, and are averse to public spending, long after roads, homes, and other tendrils of redistribution, and regulation of things like guns civilization have reached into the old frontier. and pollution. “The way that people tell and sustain narratives PUBLIC DOMAIN PHOTO 26 BOSTONIA Fall 2018 about the past oftentimes motivates their reason- ing and the way they view current events,” he says. IN PROGRESS “People come to view themselves as potentially carrying on that tradition.… Culture is sticky, A Growing Unhealthy Body Fixation; Politicians and culture doesn’t change as quickly.” (This ap- plies in other areas of life, according to Bazzi; for and Promotions; the Opioid Epidemic's Vulnerable example, developmental economics teaches that Populations; the Risks of Flavored E-Cigs cultures with big families cling to that practice even when economic circumstances make smaller families more feasible.) The researchers used census data from 1790 to “SNAPCHAT DYSMORPHIA” 1890, defi ning the frontier line as a point beyond A HEALTH THREAT which population density fell below two people Three MED authors wrote a per square mile. Counties within 100 kilometers commentary for JAMA Facial of that line and having fewer than six people per Plastic Surgery about the grow- square mile were counted as on the frontier in the ing health threat from “Snap- chat dysmorphia,” which “has research, and the researchers measured how long patients seeking out cosmetic the counties remained frontier, as the frontier line surgery to look like fi ltered gradually shifted westward over time. versions of themselves instead, with fuller lips, bigger eyes, or “It’s individualists who were attracted to the a thinner nose.” It’s a tech- frontier because of those conditions, and then era twist on body dysmorphic once they’re there, those conditions further disorder (BDD), a long-known impairment that in extreme amplify the individualism and the importance forms can lead to depression of self-reliance,” Bazzi says. Those individualists and suicidal thoughts. BDD aff ects up to 2.4 percent of were disproportionately male and in their prime the population. (ages 15 to 49), he says, because “it was easier for men to strike off on their own and thrive in this harsh environment,” which could be crime-ridden WHY SOME POLITICIANS MAJOR GRANT TO HELP and demanded manual labor and trekking over SHUN PROMOTIONS SSW STUDY OPIOID CRISIS terrain without roads; the pioneers might face Fewer than one-fi fth of big-city A School of Social Work team and have to fi ght Native Americans hostile to their mayors seek higher offi ce, has been working to address encroachment. recent BU research found. They one of the opioid epidemic’s This turf made people resent government aid to are put off by gridlock and most vulnerable populations— partisan knife fi ghts in upper children and their mothers. those whom the pioneers saw as less hardworking reaches of politics—both in The team received a $900,000, than themselves, the researchers found. The sense Washington, D.C., and in state three-year grant to measure the of Manifest Destiny, the idea that the continent capitals. The US House of Rep- eff ectiveness of Project BRIGHT, resentatives, for example, is a therapeutic parent-infant was America’s for the conquering, sired attitudes a comedown for the many may- home-based intervention aimed against curbing pollution and environmental ors whose cities may have at improving the mother-child despoliation among today’s dwellers in longtime more people than a congres- relationship by increasing ma- sional district, according to ternal sensitivity and parenting frontier counties. the study. After being their capacities. Mothers with opioid “You see the frontier having this sort of last- municipality’s top executive, use disorder can be disengaged they would be merely one of as parents, leading to possible ing imprint on their preferences about things 435 House representatives. child maltreatment. like regulation, even if we account for their par- tisanship or economic personal circumstances,” Bazzi says. FLAVORED E-CIGS ARE The researchers studied and cross-referenced LINKED TO POSSIBLE such records as census data, election returns, CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE contemporary property tax rates, and opinion sur- A laboratory study by MED veys measuring people’s attitudes toward public researchers found that addi- spending and redistribution. They also studied tives used to fl avor e-cigarettes can damage the cells that line psychological insights into the link between indi- blood vessels and may reduce vidualism and the frontier, which was noted as far the production of nitric oxide, back as 1893, when historian Frederick Jackson increasing the risk of infl am- mation and heart disease. The Turner suggested that the latter bred the former. researchers noticed that when “His notion of individualists settling the the cells that line blood vessels frontier is something that social psychologists were exposed to fl avoring addi- tives, normally released chemi- have extended to thinking about frontiers more cals to promote blood fl ow were generally,” Bazzi says. For example, he says, decreased and infl ammation increased, indicators of short- Japanese psychologist Shinobu Kitayama “docu- term toxicity. mented similar sorts of traits in Japan” among frontier dwellers. kONLINE: Read more about BU research at bu.edu/research..