Skip to main content

What Is the Roseto Effect? How Close-Knit Communities Thrive

Not too long ago, an important study took place in the town of Roseto, Pennsylvania. The results are especially potent today, suggesting that relief for stress comes in a surprisingly straightforward and perhaps wildly effective form. The only problem is that a lot of the institutions that sponsored such a healthy and long lifespan are going away, if not gone entirely.

Let’s start from the beginning. In the 1950s and 60s, Roseto had established itself as a small dot along the mid-Atlantic, a working-class town of primarily Italian-Americans. The town was named after Roseto Valfortore, a place in Italy where the original inhabitants came from (in fact, the vast majority remain descendants of the original inhabitants). The lifestyle of the community was not markedly different from the rest of the country, save for a few vital European components the traveled across the Atlantic.

roseto effect family friends community dinner wine
10,000 Hours/Getty Images

Rosetans loved pasta and wine. They feasted on sausages and smoked the occasional cigar. But more importantly, they loved each other and took every opportunity to engage as a community. The local clubs, organizations, potlucks, and more were routinely well-attended. Several generations of a single family often lived together under the same roof.

The result? Nobody worried about anything. Stress levels were so low they were practically off the charts (in a good way) and lifespans reflected the unique comfort level. It’s been reported that the crime rate in Roseto was virtually nonexistent. After enough years of just about everybody in Roseto avoiding heart disease and stress-related deaths, some researchers showed up.

We live in a time where neighborhood gatherings, clubs, and social organizations still exist but are not as popular as they once were. Pandemics aside, we tend to lock ourselves in more than we reach out to those across the street, opting for Netflix over backyard bingo.

Death certificates from the mid-1950s and 1960s were examined by researchers from state and federal levels. The results were remarkable, standing way out when compared to lifespans and health conditions of those in neighboring towns. Across the board, Rosetans were somewhere around half as likely to be stricken with things like heart attacks, hypertension, and strokes.

Keep in mind that this is not some gated luxury community of ultra-wealthy people. Roseto is a small town along the Slate Belt, with a mainly lower to middle-class makeup. About the only thing bubble-like here is the Italian lifestyle, which yields less stress and what many have dubbed the closest thing to a real fountain of youth there is.

We live in a time where neighborhood gatherings, clubs, and social organizations still exist but are not as popular as they once were. Pandemics aside, we tend to lock ourselves in more than we reach out to those across the street, opting for Netflix over backyard bingo. And that might just be a key factor in our higher rates of hypertension, strokes, and heart attacks.

family friends community dinner barbecue
Chee Gin Tan/Getty Images

Stress is such a popular term that we tend to take it for granted. Yet, it’s very real and given what’s unfolding with COVID-19, it will only grow in severity. But the importance of the Roseto lifestyle doesn’t just apply to stress-riddled times of crisis. It applies to everything from the gig hustle to the shrinking middle class.

The economy hasn’t really been the same since 2008. Recessions or slow growth are the norm and single career paths have become fractured into avenues with more turns and role changes than ever. Once sturdy professions like journalism have been reduced to exhausting freelance endeavors, with relentless chasing and rarely much security. And the more specialized vocations, by and large, have been gobbled up by the big boxes.

Stress is such a popular term that we tend to take it for granted. But the importance of the Roseto lifestyle doesn’t just apply to stress-riddled times of crisis. It applies to everything from the gig hustle to the shrinking middle class.

This means it’s tougher to live on your own, especially in absurdly expensive cities like San Francisco and New York. The thought of living at home into your 20s and early 30s is usually met with embarrassment in this country but perhaps it shouldn’t be. If nothing else, there could be health benefits, assuming you and your family get along.

What’s interesting is that Rosetans of the mid-20th century flourished out of essentially being non-American. It wasn’t a direct protest, but instead of fencing off yards and gluing your family of 2.2 to the radio or television (the American way), this community shared in religious gatherings, had frequent festivities, and never let a soul walk by without a proper hello. They worked extremely hard in slate quarries by day and caught up as a group by night, with Chianti for company.

Roseto gives me hope. Yes, we’re living in what Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and author Nicholas Kristof calls the great social depression. Community-oriented traditions aren’t what they used to be. Small towns, especially, are alienated affairs, with poor education that leads to economic disparity, depression, anxiety, alcoholism, etc. But now that we know there are genuine mental and physical benefits to the social fabric, why not revive it? And what better time than now (now as in after the COVID-19 dust settles), when technology has fooled us into thinking the world is small but in reality, we’ve never been more independent of one another?

After a couple of months in quarantine, mandated or not, we’re going to be ravenous for community. There may be a real opportunity to learn from Roseto circa 1957 and make our neighbors like family. Few towns can replicate the massive family trees rooted in one specific place, but we can all mimic the engagement, sense of belonging, and resulting feeling of comfort that the Pennsylvania town of some 1,600 has become famous for.

Editors' Recommendations

Mark Stock
Mark Stock is a writer from Portland, Oregon. He fell into wine during the Recession and has been fixated on the stuff since…
Everything points to Apple TV+ making a change you’re not going to like
Is an ad-supported tier coming to Apple TV+?
The Apple TV Plus Logo

It turns out that TV worked pretty well under its old model. According to a new report from Business Insider, Apple TV+ may be the latest streaming service that's set to introduce an ad-supported tier and charge those who don't stream with ads a premium fee to access their great shows and movies.

At this point, the report is still speculation, but Apple has made several recent hires in the advertising space that seem to suggest the direction they're planning to take. The company recently hired former NBCUniversal ad executive Joseph Cady to serve as executive vice president of advanced advertising and partnerships, a move that comes following the company's hiring of another former NBCUniversal executive, Jason Frum, who joined Apple's video ad sales team.

Read more
From Gilda Radner to Ali Wong, these are the best female comedians of all time
These women from all generations will make you laugh out loud
Ai Wong comedian 2017 Moontower comedy festival

Hot take: I don’t care for straight male comedians. It’s not that they’re not funny, they’re just … I don’t know, boring? Maybe that’s reductive of me, but I never seem to leave a straight male comedian’s set feeling particularly inspired. And though some may argue that it’s not important for a set to "inspire" its audience, I’d actually argue that the opposite is true. For me, I want to see a comedian use humor to address real issues and say real things about the world, even if they do it in a completely goofy way.

Therefore, I tend to prefer female and female-identified comedians. They’re sharp, tough, and have often seen shit that makes their comedy feel raw and true. Undoubtedly there are male comedians who do this, too, but to a much lesser degree, in my very humble and very personal opinion.

Read more
12 classic sci-fi books everyone should read
If you love science fiction and reading, these classic sci-fi novels are a must
Man reading a book and drinking coffee

It may feel like we were recently living in a science-fiction dystopia life -- and in some ways, we were -- but that doesn't mean that we should simply avoid an entire genre of writing. Hardly. In fact, this is probably the perfect time to explore classic sci-fi books, to see what the masters have written, and maybe even see if someone predicted anything like this. Many, though, simply ignore sci-fi wholly and completely because of an association with robots, aliens, and the like.

Long story short, if you think you don't like sci-fi, you have never read great books from the genre. But indeed, many such books abound, including a number that has delighted generations of readers going back well over 150 years. In fact, one of the best things about so many sci-fi books is their very timelessness. As by definition, this type of fiction breaks away from the norms of the everyday world -- whether slightly twisting things or taking place on entire other worlds -- the stories often feel as fresh and relevant today as when they were published decades ago.

Read more