U. of Chicago study offers evidence for lower rates of depression in large US cities

CHICAGO – The pandemic has urged some city dwellers to leave urbanity in favor of locales with more space, including rural areas.

But a new University of Chicago study may have folks rethinking making moves. Marc Berman, associate professor in the department of psychology, co-authored the work that cites cities predict lower depression rates among people, due to the social, socioeconomic and infrastructure networks that one finds in metropolises. Those same networks can lead to rapid increases in social interaction and higher rates of innovation and wealth production.

“With a lot of earlier works, there was this kind of romantic notion that more rural and less populated areas were happier and mentally healthy. And this study really counters that. Actually, when we look at the data, we don’t see that,” Berman said.

Berman and his research team used pre-pandemic data sets derived from the U.S. Census and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in approximately 80 U.S. cities that range in population from 40,000 to 10 million to come up with the study’s results. The largest data set was a Twitter one from 2019 that used 80 tweets per user as a depression inventory, to quantify how depressed a Twitter user was.

“We analyzed four independent data sets, which allow for consistent assessments of cases of depression across different urban areas in the United States,” Berman said. “Everybody thinks that bigger cities have more crime, more stress, maybe people are more cold or callous and that would seem to suggest that you get more mental illness or more depression as cities get bigger and we found just the opposite.”

Much has been written about the environment and one’s health, be it mental or physical. A 2019 NYU School of Medicine analysis found the average life expectancy is as wide as 30 years from one Chicago neighborhood to another — the largest gap in the country. And other studies show the correlation of green spaces with mental health, in urban areas. Berman, an expert on the intersection of psychology and environmental factors, says the U. of C. research is one more pebble in his ongoing work that looks at the impact the physical and social environment has on brains and behavior.

“In the U.S., people are so individualistic,” Berman said. “If you work hard, you can be successful. People look at people who are successful and think they’re just not working hard enough, instead of recognizing that so much of it is out of our control based on environment. That’s what we’re really pushing in our lab — that it’s not all about the individual.”

With the pandemic highlighting lots of warts in society, Berman is hoping public policymakers are working on making cities more resilient — while keeping people’s mental health in mind. For him, that translates to making more green spaces in cities and making them necessities instead of amenities. It also means altering and improving existing environments to make them safer and easier to move around. He’s hopeful about the Biden infrastructure plan making that happen.

“If there are more trees in the neighborhood, there’s less crime,” Berman said. “If people visit parks outside their neighborhood, there’s also less crime in their neighborhood, and that’s about mobility and access. It’s about making it easy. And if you can make it easily accessible, then you’re going to see the benefits. If you can get people to interact with each other more, you’re gonna get more innovation and you’re gonna get less depression.”

Next up for Berman’s team, looking at different characteristics that may lead to more or less cases of depression in different Chicago neighborhoods. More transportation infrastructure, less depression since it’s easier to capitalize on the good opportunities the city has.

“It’s not about the person. It’s about the environment,” Berman said. “You can’t expect people living in a really stressful environment to be able to be their best selves, and the flip side is people who live in good environments, saying ‘oh I worked hard and blah blah blah.’ But you had a lot of opportunities, it’s much easier to be successful in certain environments. Chicago has great opportunities but if in some neighborhoods you can’t get hooked into that, it’s depressing and those neighborhoods won’t be able to reap the benefits.

That’s why we put a huge emphasis on trying to do things to the environment that will allow people to reach their full capabilities. We have to think about cities as gigantic ecosystems, yes there are some negatives but there are also a lot of positives ... cities are really the only way that we can live sustainably with as many people that we have on the planet.”

Telosa: A vision for equitable, sustainable big city living

A former Walmart executive and entrepreneur has announced plans to build a utopian and sustainable metropolis that will incorporate smart city concepts, including a broad range of integrated and coordinated services.

"Cities that have been built to date from scratch are more like real estate projects," billionaire Marc Lore said in Telosa’s promotional video. "They don't start with people at the center.”

The built-from-scratch city, tentatively named “Telosa,” aims to put equity and sustainability at the heart of its vision by employing the latest open and transparent technologies to improve public services and reduce waste. The project is expected to require upwards of $400 billion in funding and, within 40 years, cover over 150,000 acres and house over 5 million people.  

Renewable, eco-friendly materials like timber will be used for the bulk of Telosa’s construction,  and once the city is operational, a circular economy will be put in place.

An advanced communication infrastructure will make wireless services more secure and affordable, with Telosa’s apps providing city information to all its residents. A “next gen infrastructure management system” will deliver real-time city services and transit and “maximize safe, efficient, and affordable management of people, services and vehicles throughout the city,” the Telosa website says. Artificial intelligence, 3D printing, and advanced monitors and sensing will be deployed to improve services deliver and reduce waste.  

The city itself will also support public and private partnerships by making incubators and accelerator programs available to residents. While the location for Telosa has not yet been decided, the southwestern United States has been floated as one of the proposed site.

Nevada has taken a small step into purpose-built smart cities. Gov. Steve Sisolak has proposed a bill that would allow technology companies to establish innovation zones that function in part as a local government that supports resident housing, schools, retail, transportation, power generation and health care facilities and fosters economic development in emerging technology industries.

"The mission of Telosa is to create a more equitable, sustainable future. That’s our North Star," Lore said. "We are going to be the most open, the most fair and the most inclusive city in the world."

Study Finds Large Cities Promote Lower Rates of Depression

The big city might not be such a cold, dark place after all.

A new study suggests large, urban environments promote lower rates of depression among city residents, in comparison to suburbs and towns, due to the increased daily social interaction cities and the built environment facilitate.

University of Chicago researchers analyzed National Institute of Health psychological surveys and sentiments expressed by people on geo-located Twitter as part of the study, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Aug. 3.

Co-author Luis Bettencourt, a professor of ecology and evolution at University of Chicago, said their findings may fly in the face of urban stereotypes. 

“It was surprising to a lot of people who have grown up on the idea that cities, because they’re tense places, are often thought to be bad for mental health,” Bettencourt said. “But there seems to be a role of city size in being protective against depression.”

Bettencourt said social interaction or lack thereof, is one key factor of depression. He said the everyday interactions found in a city environment – buying coffee, greeting a bus driver, even less pleasant interactions with passersby – appear to ward off depression.

The crowded and interconnected city environment of buildings, streets and other infrastructure stimulate those interactions, whereas a more isolated life in suburbs or small towns might not.

“By being deprived of these modes of being in public spaces in the city, experiencing contact with many diverse people,” Bettencourt said. “That effect being reduced would lead to higher levels of depression.”