Conservatives have the edge over liberals in terms of reproductive success.
Social attitudes are heritable behavioral dispositions and therefore, evolvable human traits; despite this, their associations with fertility as a crucial marker of evolutionary fitness are rarely examined.
We used a publicly available, large intercultural dataset (N = 78754; 72 countries) to empirically explore the associations between conservative social attitudes (i.e., right-wing ideology, a lack of support for gender equality, self-reported religiousness, and preference for religiousness in romantic partners) and fertility, measured as the number of children.
The results showed that all examined attitudes positively predicted fertility across countries. Individuals with the strongest expression of these attitudes had an additional non-linear increment in fertility. Interestingly, although women in the present sample are less conservative, those who more strongly endorse conservative beliefs (specifically right-wing ideology and more traditional gender roles) also have higher fertility.
Right-wing ideology and low preference for gender equality were more strongly associated with fertility in women than in men. Self-reported religiousness was strongly associated with a preference for the same trait in romantic partners. Atheist individuals who prefer similar partners had a lower number of children, suggesting that this form of assortment is the least adaptive in an evolutionary sense and may be under negative directional selection.
Present findings suggest that conservative social attitudes may be under positive directional selection and could be evolving in contemporary humans, contributing to both human evolutionary ecology and behavioral demography. There are studies showing that conservative attitudes are associated with higher parenthood motivation in individuals who have not yet had children, which suggests that the causal direction may go from attitudes to fertility.
Social attitudes are heritable behavioral dispositions and therefore, evolvable human traits; despite this, their associations with fertility as a crucial marker of evolutionary fitness are rarely examined.
We used a publicly available, large intercultural dataset (N = 78754; 72 countries) to empirically explore the associations between conservative social attitudes (i.e., right-wing ideology, a lack of support for gender equality, self-reported religiousness, and preference for religiousness in romantic partners) and fertility, measured as the number of children.
The results showed that all examined attitudes positively predicted fertility across countries. Individuals with the strongest expression of these attitudes had an additional non-linear increment in fertility. Interestingly, although women in the present sample are less conservative, those who more strongly endorse conservative beliefs (specifically right-wing ideology and more traditional gender roles) also have higher fertility.
Right-wing ideology and low preference for gender equality were more strongly associated with fertility in women than in men. Self-reported religiousness was strongly associated with a preference for the same trait in romantic partners. Atheist individuals who prefer similar partners had a lower number of children, suggesting that this form of assortment is the least adaptive in an evolutionary sense and may be under negative directional selection.
Present findings suggest that conservative social attitudes may be under positive directional selection and could be evolving in contemporary humans, contributing to both human evolutionary ecology and behavioral demography. There are studies showing that conservative attitudes are associated with higher parenthood motivation in individuals who have not yet had children, which suggests that the causal direction may go from attitudes to fertility.
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