A recent study published in Scientific Reports suggests that political beliefs are increasingly linked to the number of children Americans choose to have. The findings indicate that while conservative individuals tend to maintain birth rates near historical averages, left-leaning individuals are having significantly fewer children. This demographic trend provides evidence that differing birth rates are a main driver of recent fertility declines in the United States.
The data revealed a pronounced change in how political beliefs relate to family size. For individuals born in the early 1900s, political orientation had almost no association with the number of children they had. However, beginning with the cohort born between 1943 and 1947, a massive divergence emerged.
“We expected these results, but not to such a dramatic extent,” Fieder told PsyPost. From the mid-century cohorts onward, individuals with right-wing political views maintained birth rates at or slightly above the replacement level. The replacement level, typically considered to be 2.1 children per woman, is the rate needed for a population to replace itself from one generation to the next without immigration.
In contrast, the birth rates of left-wing individuals dropped sharply, falling well below the replacement level in the more recent cohorts. The authors noticed this drop aligns with historical changes in family planning. “We found that the gap began with the introduction of modern contraception,” Fieder said.
Implies that right wing parents will necessarily have right wing children. Nothing spooks kids out of becoming right wing like having to live and deal with narcissistic hypocrisy up close daily. Kids are not a reflection of their parents, they are a reaction to their parents.
My parents are life-long Republicans. Triple Trumpers. They aren’t the flag waving MAGAs or anything insane, they just fully believe all the decades of propaganda like “vote R if you believe in freedom and law and order and the working man. And Democrats are all insane evil people that think schools should have litter boxes in class.” or whatever the shit all is.
I’m very Leftist or Progressive or whatever you wanna call me.
It is SO DAMN FRUSTRATING talking to them about anything at all that is even tangentially related to a hot political take. You can visibly observe the “Thought Stopping Cliche” kicking in and any further discussion is over.
It really is the hypocrisy. You question things like “pro life” and how statistically more women and babies die due to medical neglect and very preventable issues with abortion being demonized and a legal issue. If you keep pushing you eventually hit the wall of the hypocrisy where they really don’t care about all the deaths because “it’s just wrong and if people die it’s their fault” as if people are lining up to get medical abortions for funzies.
And on and on. You point out the facts and statistics of how detrimental a conservative policy is and it’s always met with victim blaming, whataboutism, straw men and all the other cliches.
That, among all the other things, and just paying attention and giving a damn about other people pushed me further and further left.
my father and SO dad are fanatics. We could not be more different. I hate them sooo much.
Yet I know a (edit: right-wing) Mormon young adult who speaks and acts exactly like his (edit: right-wing) Mormon father who is a narcissistic hypocrite. Sometimes they are a direct reflection – usually due to brainwashing from birth, as is done with most religionist families.
My point was that its not at all a guarantee, or even good odds. You can’t assume the political alignment of someone by who their parents are. A singular counterexample isn’t what you’re looking for. That person could even have estranged siblings, did you ask about that?
You stated “Kids are not a reflection of their parents, they are a reaction to their parents.” as an absolute, not as a statistic. Perhaps you meant otherwise, and if so, no worries and I concede the point.
I get your sentiment. I find it optimistic, actually, and hope that the human race continues to become considerably more skeptical of any dogmatic ideologies, rejects them, and lives their life in peace. I have taught my own child to think for themself, that while I may have my own notions about things, they should do their own research and proper consideration of any given topic to form their own opinion. I, for one, have tried to do my part to instill such critical thinking.
By reaction, i mean the sum total of their relationship with their parents. Whether they were the golden child, spoiled, neglected, whatever. Parents very often treat one kid more favorably than the other, and that teaches certain lessons on accident. I don’t find it surprising that the golden child takes after their parents for example, but it doesn’t mean their less favored siblings did. And don’t count out the influence on teachers, who can also teach unintended lessons on accident.
I was replying to the main article that was like was sounding like this was an automatic W for right wingers, when its much more complicated than that.
If there’s evidence that kids are necessarily following their parents political beliefs, id like to see it. But i doubt it, because that would imply the age gap doesnt exist in politics.
So far, indicators for turning right wing have to do with personality elements like fear of new things. Thats not necessarily a nature-by-birth thing - life experience influences this, drug exposure, and so on. Id argue that humans in childhood are predisposed to like exploring new things and then something happens for them to unlearn it.
I also dont take it as a optimist thing. I think its more of an always and forever thing about humans. Its impossible to genocide right wingedness out of the population, and still impossible to do the other way around. Because humans adapt to the life they’re given, and not to the life that their parents think they’re giving them.
I went Left of my Republican parents, and my son is even more Left than me.
In truth, I didn’t reject my parent’s politics, I just developed my own, using my Critical Thinking Skills, something I noticed that Conservatives aren’t good at. They have to be told what to believe, because what they’re told to believe doesn’t make sense, and nobody with decent Critical Thinking Skills would come to Conservative conclusions…unless they were Sociopathic and Corrupt.
But that’s actually true. Most red states keep being red, most red areas stay red. If what you said was true, states would change party every generation
People move, all the time. Often to where opportunities are. California wasn’t always the most populous state. Carpetbaggers, gold rush, dust bowl, and so on and so forth. Take a look at historical election maps. Geography isn’t a good measure for this idea as you’re introducing a whole lot of other variables that aren’t related.
Or the kids left never to return. Its why halmark made so many city girl return home movies. It appeals to that demographic.
How would that reasoning apply to the Trumps?
necessarily
adverb
nec·es·sar·i·ly ˌne-sə-ˈser-ə-lē
1 : of necessity : unavoidably, The audience was necessarily small. This endeavor necessarily involves some risk.
2 : as a logical result or consequence … a holocaust is a disaster, but a disaster is not necessarily a holocaust.— Harry Shaw
I was more commenting on this part:
I went further right and more religious than my already-fairly-right-wing and christian parents. Sometime in my 20s I boomeranged the opposite direction. Had I not had certain people in my life and had the internet been what it is now when I was young, I’m not sure I would have turned out the same way.
This is what happened to me too. More patience from acquaintances than I deserved (and seeing people who I considered friends unironically believe the depraved stuff on 4chan) started a leftwards pivot that continues to this day.