Couples today would rather have a new car than an extra child
Our desire for must-have gadgets is leading to ‘fertility decline’
Keeping up with the Jones’ by spending on flashy status symbols is pushing down childbirth rates, new research claims.
Striving for a new car, house, or the latest must-have gadget is the main reason why many people in the West are delaying having even one child – or abandoning the idea altogether.
Our brains – which evolved to live in much smaller societies – are now ‘misfiring’ as we ‘overinvest’ in accumulating high-status items, it is claimed.
Paul Hooper, an anthropologist at Emory University, Atlanta, developed a mathematical model to simulate the effect growth of striving for material goods has on fertility.
He said: ‘Our model shows that as competition becomes more focused on social climbing, as opposed to just putting food on the table, people invest more in material goods and achieving social status, and that affects how many children they have.’
He added: ‘The areas where we see the greatest declines in fertility are areas with modern labour markets that have intense competition for jobs and an overwhelming diversity of consumer goods available to signal well being and social status.
‘The fact many countries today have so much social inequality, which makes status competition more intense, may be an important part of the explanation.’
The theory is also supported by studies of people from rainforest tribes who move to the City for the first time – and strive for high-status items.
Read more at www.dailymail.co.uk
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