Humans are complicated creatures; studying them is also complicated. The social sciences contain up to 12 major disciplines, depending on who’s counting. And they range from anthropology, psychology and sociology to more quantitative fields like economics and demography. Being able to grasp the vast variations in human activity, from a person’s mental state to the movements of nations, is essential to navigating the chaotic times in which we live.
To keep you up to date with the science behind today’s hot topics, we’re expanding our social science coverage with a new section, Being Human, in this issue. First of all: whether it’s trying to encourage people to have more babies, an idea put forward by pronatalist movements in the United States and elsewhere, will help reverse declining birth rates, and whether that should be a goal.
Our social science editor, Sujata Gupta, dug deeper and found that government incentives to encourage people to have more children have rarely been successful. This is especially likely today, when young people struggle to find jobs and affordable housing and headlines become more frightening by the day.
“Whether you’re liberal or conservative, our view of family is the nuclear family,” Gupta told me. But, she notes, the idea of a family consisting of just parents and children is a surprisingly recent invention and one that puts a lot of pressure on parents. As a married, working mother whose own parents are estranged, Gupta feels this pinch.
Evolutionary history shows that humans have long relied on cooperative approaches to child rearing that included extended family, older siblings, and community members. Some current hunter-gatherer societies continue in this mode, Gupta reports, but it would be difficult to imitate them in Western societies.
Experts say it might be better to encourage parenthood by improving the well-being of the community as a whole. Policies that support all residents can help young adults feel safe enough to make the leap to parenthood, and their children feel safe, too, Gupta says. It’s a much bigger undertaking than, say, mailing new parents a check. But it could make society work a little better for everyone.
