> I've seen it hypothesized that higher risk-aversion from a media-inculcated culture of fear could be responsible for Americans' unique disinterest in internat

> I've seen it hypothesized that higher risk-aversion from a media-inculcated culture of fear could be responsible for Americans' unique disinterest in international travel. I suspect it has more to do with the distance between most of the US and other nations combined with the variety Americans perceive within their own borders. Hawaii and Alaska are very different climatically and to a lesser degree culturally from Iowa. In many other nations national borders are closer and there's no intervening ocean, or perhaps only a narrow, theoretically swimmable strait, separating you from the next nation over.