Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA.
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Proc Biol Sci. 2022 Sep 14;289(1982):20220978. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2022.0978. Epub 2022 Sep 7.
Differences in attitudes on social issues such as abortion, immigration and sex are hugely divisive, and understanding their origins is among the most important tasks facing human behavioural sciences. Despite the clear psychological importance of parenthood and the motivation to provide care for children, researchers have only recently begun investigating their influence on social and political attitudes. Because socially conservative values ostensibly prioritize safety, stability and family values, we hypothesized that being more invested in parental care might make socially conservative policies more appealing. Studies 1 (preregistered; = 376) and 2 ( = 1924) find novel evidence of conditional experimental effects of a parenthood prime, such that people who engaged strongly with a childcare manipulation showed an increase in social conservatism. Studies 3 ( = 2610, novel data from 10 countries) and 4 ( = 426 444, World Values Survey data) find evidence that both parenthood and parental care motivation are associated with increased social conservatism around the globe. Further, most of the positive association globally between age and social conservatism is accounted for by parenthood. These findings support the hypothesis that parenthood and parental care motivation increase social conservatism.
在堕胎、移民和性别等社会问题上的态度差异极具分歧性，了解这些差异的起源是人类行为科学面临的最重要任务之一。尽管为人父母的心理重要性和为孩子提供照顾的动机是显而易见的，但研究人员直到最近才开始研究它们对社会和政治态度的影响。由于保守的社会价值观表面上优先考虑安全、稳定和家庭价值观，我们假设对父母照顾的投入越多，可能会使更保守的社会政策更具吸引力。研究 1（预先注册；n=376）和 2（n=1924）发现了父母身份提示的条件实验效应的新证据，即强烈参与儿童保育操作的人表现出社会保守主义的增强。研究 3（n=2610，来自 10 个国家的新数据）和 4（n=426444，世界价值观调查数据）发现，父母身份和父母照顾动机都与全球范围内的社会保守主义增加有关的证据。此外，全球范围内年龄与社会保守主义之间的大部分正相关关系都可以归因于父母身份。这些发现支持了这样一种假设，即为人父母和照顾孩子的动机增加了社会保守主义。
