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Pork & Talk: How to Measure the Psychological Impact of China’s Progress

How has China’s meteoric growth psychologically impacted its people? To find out, researchers from the American Journal of Human Biologytraveled to Hainan Island and asked how stress was linked to two trappings of modernity; eating pork and owning a mobile phone.

A meaty diet and an increased ownership of consumer goods were chosen as the two most common lifestyle changes associated with modernization. 612 islanders were screened for anti-bodies of Epstein-Barr, a form of herpes virus, which is almost ubiquitous in economically developed communities, and serves as an indicator for stress levels.

Pork is a traditional symbol of affluence for rural Chinese communities, while a mobile phone is seen as a vital social tool, especially for younger generations living in China’s expansive countryside.

The results show that psychological stress was higher among those who reported eating pork, but lower among those who were more likely to spend money on a mobile phone. The authors propose that as mobile phones prevent isolation and act as a marker of integration into the wider, modern community, people are subject to less stress if the sphere of their social activities expands in the course of economic development.