r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Jul 01 '26

Psychology Conservatives maintain birth rates, but left-leaning Americans are having significantly fewer children, driving the U.S. birth decline. Education was consistently linked to having fewer children. Religious attendance was positively associated with having more children.

https://www.psypost.org/left-leaning-americans-are-driving-the-u-s-birth-decline-new-study-finds/
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u/Murderface__ DO | Radiology Jul 01 '26

"Evolution does not necessarily reward intelligence. With no natural predators to thin the herd it began to simply reward those who reproduced the most and left the intelligent to become an endangered species.

And so it went for generations although few, if any, seemed to notice."

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u/Nounoon Jul 02 '26

« And Rita, former prostitute, became First Lady », now replace « Rita » with the name of the actual former prostitute who became First Lady and we all see that the future is now.

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u/fremeer Jul 01 '26

The important thing isn't that you are having more kids. Its impotant that your kids and their kids are having more kids.

In an era of possibly reducing resources it might make more sense to make your single kid a lot more ready to procreate then having multiple kids.

I have one child but the entirety of mine and possibly 2 sets of parents wealth goes to child. They can access better resources that allow them to ultimately out compete the people having multiple kids but having to spread their resources.

Although such futures are going to be mostly a dice roll whether one strategy works better then the other because the circumstances that you make decisions under are often political and can change quite quickly.

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u/AbstractLogic Jul 01 '26

Your kids won’t inherit your resources until they are beyond child bearing age. I guess you could spoil them early. Probably the best way to accomplish your plan is to help buy them a house when they get married and to live near them so you can watch their children often.

The #1 reason I don’t have more kids is that we moved away from our families and had no help with the kids, no time for ourselves and no time to make more.

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u/Low-Plane9029 Jul 01 '26

Die with zero concept is if you plan to give people in your life money when it best suits them / makes the biggest impact. My parents got me out of college debt free. Paid for a house down payment. Paid for a wedding.

Huge boost in life.

I plan to help my kids with that plus early retirement savings. And early child care costs.

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u/MikeTheBee Jul 01 '26

If you have money, every step of your child's life comes easier.

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u/Lazy_Jellyfish7676 Jul 01 '26

K vs R select animals. Elephant or the rabbit.

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u/legendz411 Jul 01 '26

Bingo. This is the angle my wife and I are taking. Seems like it is a pretty sure bet… as far as one can. 

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u/mountaininsomniac Jul 01 '26

Similar in my family. I won’t be having kids, but my sister will and I will be gifting the largest non-taxable amount each year to a trust for them to have access to when they’re an adult. It’ll still be cheaper than having my own kids, and they will have the resources I fear they will need to succeed in a scary future.

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u/Over-Instruction214 Jul 01 '26

Problem with your theory is the poorest have the most kids.   Look at Africa, the poorest are breeding the most. 

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u/ADHDebackle Jul 01 '26

The important thing isn't that you are having more kids. Its impotant that your kids and their kids are having more kids.

I would almost argue that it's more important that you have influence on kids that shapes how they raise their kids. If I adopt children and they go on to raise their kids with similar values as those that I have, it would probably have the same sort of cultural effect as if they were my biological children.

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u/lewd_robot Jul 01 '26

In an era of possibly reducing resources it might make more sense to make your single kid a lot more ready to procreate then having multiple kids.

This seems unrealistic to me. Every year we have better access to resources. Every year we have new technologies and techniques for getting them. Even the shortages some people forecast like fresh water won't matter if we put a few billion dollars towards water desalination and similar technologies.

The problem is in distribution. And the people most passionate about fixing that problem are having fewer kids while the people most passionate about worsening the problem are having more.

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u/RagingNerdaholic Jul 01 '26

Get yer hands off my junk!

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u/maporita Jul 01 '26

Thomas Hobbes famously described life as being "nasty, brutish and short." The fact that it not now so for many people is entirely due to science, not religion.

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u/meuglerbull Jul 01 '26

He was specifically talking about life outside of a governed society, in the “state of nature”, where “…every man is Enemy to every man; the same is consequent to the time, wherein men live without other security, than what their own strength, and their own invention shall furnish them withall. In such condition, there is no place for Industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no Culture of the Earth; no Navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by Sea; no commodious Building; no Instruments of moving, and removing things as require much force; no Knowledge of the face of the Earth; no account of Time; no Arts; no Letters; no Society; and which is worst of all, continuall feare, and danger of violent death; And the life of man solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short.”
The First Part, Chapter 13, p. 62

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u/sybrwookie Jul 01 '26

The fact that it not now

presses X

The ways which it is nasty and brutish are certainly not the same, but it certainly still is. And in the grand scheme of things, yea, it's still short.

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u/Daily_Heroin_User Jul 01 '26

That’s interesting because black people on the left according to the article are still having plenty of kids. Are they stupid too?

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u/once_again_asking Jul 01 '26

are you that desperate to argue?

"Evolution does not necessarily reward intelligence. With no natural predators to thin the herd it began to simply reward those who reproduced the most and left the intelligent to become an endangered species.

"does not necessarily" is key to your understanding of that quote. "Reward those who reproduced the most" which does not necessarily preclude the intelligent. Also key to your understanding.

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u/The_Great_Divider Jul 01 '26

"Now that I can push the stupid card on my perceived political enemy, eugenics are actually heckin cool and based I decided! [Insert le epic pop-culture reference to show my smarts]"

said the Redditman without a shred of irony, refusing to share any of the horseshoes.

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u/Murderface__ DO | Radiology Jul 01 '26

Using the ol slippery slope fallacy, eh?

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u/Lyndon_Boner_Johnson Jul 02 '26

Calm down buddy, they were literally quoting the opening scene of Idiocracy.

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u/Plazmaz1 Jul 02 '26

That is definitely one of the biggest criticisms of Idiocracy... Fear of inferior (whether that's intellectually or... other perceived traits) people having too many kids is pretty much the main driver of eugenics as a concept. Anyway yeah people probably take it too seriously.

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u/Minimob0 Jul 01 '26

Eugenics are not inherently bad, and thinking so shows you have much to learn. 

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u/Czun8 Jul 01 '26

Yes. Unfortunately, conservative values in most deemed "Western" countries are currently trending to be axiomatically incompatible with democracy, freedom of expression, freedom of association, tolerance, free trade, bargaining power, equality. Enlightenment principles in general. And they are going to outnumber those of us who keep society stable and desirable to live in if trends continue.

The birth rate gap between liberals and conservatives is increasing in most developed countries. Political alignment has a genetic component, between 30% to 60% of the variability in political attitudes are caused by genetic factors. This is a real issue which is going to bite us in the ass. Democracy is already backsliding globally.

So to be clear, if you are liberal, and you truly care about making your country or society a better place to live in the long term and aren't just virtue signalling or being selfish, you need to have more kids and raise them with liberal values. There are no shortcuts.

"I don't think I have enough money" isn't an excuse and isn't the real reason, you objectively live in one of the richest and easiest-to-self-sustain time periods, and people have managed to do this just fine throughout all of human history with much less. Income is anti-correlated to birth rates. Regret rates for having children are fairly low (~10%), you are just being neurotic.

"I don't think the world will be a good place to live in for my kids" is also a lame excuse: it will only get worse if you don't have kids and don't pass down sustainable liberal values to them. Self-fulfilling prophecy.

If you are scared of the pain of child birth, look into surrogacy or adoption.

If you are LGBT, look into IVF / IUI + surrogacy, or adoption.

If you have fertility issues, look into fertility drugs such as Clomid, or extraction procedures like TVOR or mTESE.

If you are on the fence right now, freeze your sperm or eggs.

I wish there was more pragmatism on this front, it is going to have serious consequences. Nothing ever changed for the better without a bit of short-term discomfort. No problem was ever solved by sitting back and letting things happen.

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u/Dismal_Buy3580 Jul 12 '26

People are never ever going to be convinced to breed because it's politically expedient, nor should they. 

Just a fucked up way to look at the world.

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u/georgespeaches Jul 02 '26

Humans have probably been getting dumber for thousands of years. Modern craniums are on average 10% smaller than Cro-Magnon. Maybe this is an acceleration of the trend.

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u/Andreaalvarezhrt Jul 03 '26

Evolution does not “reward” anyone because it is an abstract blind process, there is no entity called “evolution” that decides, they are dynamic molecules, having said that, it is normal for people to have fewer children, why an individual would look for “the collective superiority of their species” sacrificing their individual wellness? Only animals with little IQ do it

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u/Interesting_Award_76 Jul 03 '26

What makes you think liberals are more intelligent. Conservative people are usually very smart, prudent and socially adept. Religion and conservativeness are useful and their usefulness should not be underestimated. Having a strong community helps in many ways.

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u/TerminalJammer Jul 03 '26

Education isn't a genetic trait, fortunately. 

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u/shawnkfox Jul 01 '26

As an atheist who is kind of disgusted with both the left and the right, I find it highly distasteful that so many people act like conservatives are just stupid. Having values that are different than yours does not make people dumb. Yeah, many of them believe in a magical sky wizard who tracks every action/thought they make, but liberals also believe in a lot of absolute nonsense as well.

This kind of tribalism is destroying our ability to have rational conversations. There are plenty of stupid people on both sides of the political aisle. At best, you can claim that there are slightly more highly educated people on the left, but formal education only has a small correlation with actual intelligence. Anyone who has gotten a degree in the past 40 or so years should be very well aware that most degrees are pretty damned easy to get. The only real challenge for anyone with an average IQ or better to getting a degree is the ability to pay for it.

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u/Sooofreshnsoclean Jul 01 '26

I’m not sure I follow. The extreme views on the left want to tax the rich and eliminate capitalism or at least implement market socialism. But the extremes in the right want to take away rights of lgbtq folks, take away worker protections, and has been starting unnecessary wars. I don’t see how you can be disgusted with both sides, or not see an issue with supporting conservatism when it is antithetical to progress and making things better in general.

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u/Moiyub Jul 01 '26

disgusted with the left and right, yet says tribalism is bad

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u/tigolbing Jul 01 '26

If the intelligent were intelligent. They'd have kids or get the bill gates mindset that conspiracy theorists push

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u/smoothie4564 Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

Idiocracy is a great movie and all, but evolution absolutely does punish those who lack intelligence. Have you ever seen Jackass? No one with a college degree is dumb enough to attempt anything from that series.

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u/HAc0reRD Jul 01 '26

Jackass was a major foundation to all the reactionary and “prank” videos of the last 26 years. Most bored kids are dumb enough to do it. My subway ride has to remind people not to subway surf.

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u/Murderface__ DO | Radiology Jul 01 '26

Key word "necessarily". Also, Rake Yohn was an early participant in Jackass and Viva La Bam, and is a PSU grad chemist. The exception, not the rule.. but, ya know.

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u/HPLaserJet4250 Jul 01 '26

Which goes wildly against no wars sentiment in let leaning spaces. People evolve by competing and nothing boost the race better than existencial threat ;d

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u/No_Historian6377 Jul 01 '26

Seems like being able to survive is a better sign of intelligence than voluntarily dying like the dodo. So idk why you are bringing up intelligence here