REVIEW
The Village Effect:
How Face-to-Face Contact Can
Make Us Healthier, Happier, and
Smarter
by Susan Pinker
Published by Penguin Random House, 2014
Reviewed by
Cynthia Rigby, MD
I
grew up in a village of slightly more than
400 people. It was proudly the smallest
incorporated village in Erie County, New
York. It was surrounded by small farms,
but the residents also were employed at
the nearby manufacturing plants and the
railroads (which ran right smack through
the village). I had lots of family nearby (we
lived with, and later next door to, one set of grandparents, and my
great-grandmother and other grandmother were within a short
walk), and learned from the example of my neighbors that the only
way anything got done was to do it together. The passage of years, big
box stores and better transportation have turned it into a bedroom
community with a lot of its identity lost, but I managed to enable our
son to experience the last blush of it on yearly month-long summer
visits, where he felt part of a larger (but very inclusive) community.
I guess we were “on” to something. Susan Pinker is a social neu-
roscientist, and wanted to know the secret behind the “Blue Zones”
that have been discovered around the globe (and discussed by Tony
Buettner at last years’ KMA meeting) where people on average live
longer, more active and healthier lives. She also investigated if our
current “connected” cyber community had any relevance and any
benefit to make us either smarter, healthier or long-lived. Anyone
who has seen small children masterfully work cell phones, or iPads
(and help adults to figure out electronics) would expect them to
be more adept at connecting to the world. Unfortunately, we have
also seen teens and tweens glued to screens, engrossed in YouTube
videos and texts, but not really “present” for in-person conversation.
Go to any public place, and the devices are in use. It’s as if we will
wither without the connection.
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LOUISVILLE MEDICINE
Pinker and her colleagues have gathered much information on
early childhood education, social interaction, and how the impor-
tance of having a “village” of contacts can be to our health, well-being
and even our intelligence. She cites the measurement of oxytocin,
our hormone that is best known in childbirth, and milk let down
in mothers, and vasopressin, which are found in our bloodstreams
when we form and maintain meaningful relationships, help damp
down stress and heal wounds faster. According to an analysis of
existing research, strong relationships and social support, and so-
cial integration (on multiple levels), reduce your chances of dying
better than quitting smoking, exercise or even breathing clean air,
by a long shot! She stresses that reading to and with young children
does more to prepare them for school than any “educational” toys
or programs. (It’s the contact, rather than the content that counts.)
She also debunks the push to have computers in the hands of all
students, and cites many failures to increase learning, in favor of
spending the time and money to train teachers how to guide students
and help them use these resources. (According to a study of 2.5
million American children, students taught by a great – rather than
average- teacher for just one year: 1) are more likely to go to college;
2) are more likely to go to an excellent college; 3) are less likely to
be teenage mothers; 4) earn more as adults (averaging $250K more
over a lifetime); 5) live in nicer neighborhoods as adults; and 6) are
more likely to save for their retirement.) Unfortunately, funds are not
directed to teacher education the way they are to fancy electronics,
and the best teachers are not always available to the populations
that need them the most.
Men do not fare as well as women in this analysis. They do not
maintain or nurture the face-to face networks of friends and contacts
that can keep them alive and well. Statistics prove them out – men