Caring for children makes people all over the world more conservative, and most of the association between age and social conservatism is accounted for by parenthood

Kerry, Nicholas, Damian Murray, Laith Al-Shawaf, Carlota Batres, Khandis Blake, Youngjae Cha, Zoran Pavlović, et al. 2022. “Parenthood and Parental Care Motives Are Associated with Increased Social Conservatism: Experimental and Cross-cultural Evidence.” PsyArXiv. July 13. doi:10.31234/osf.io/d3fg2

Abstract: 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 (pre-registered; n=376) and 2 (n=1,913) 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. Study 2 also finds evidence that this effect is mediated by increases in parental care motivation. Study 3 (n=2,610, novel data from 10 countries) and 4 (n=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.