A series of four studies by researchers from the United States, Chile, Australia, South Korea, Poland, Japan, Denmark, and Serbia has concluded that “[t]he motivation to care for children is consequently among the fundamental drivers of human behaviour, but its power to shape social attitudes and cognition is under-appreciated.” The studies revealed “cross-cultural and experimental evidence suggesting that parental care motivation leads to increases in socially conservative attitudes, and that parenthood is associated with social conservatism around the globe.” The report lends credibility to the colloquial use of such phrases as, “You’ll understand when you have children of your own,”
