What Sells When Father Knows Best

The comedian Dick Cavett once quipped, “If your parents never had children, chances are you won’t either.” It’s a funny thought, but it gets at something real.

People who are social, religious, or political conservatives tend to have more children, and that fact has profound implications for culture, for politics, and for business. In the United States, for example, fertility rates are 12% higher in states that voted for George W. Bush in the most recent presidential election than in the more liberal and secular states that supported his opponent. Indeed, if the John Kerry states seceded and formed a new nation, its fertility rate would be just 1.8 children per woman -- 13% below the level needed to replace the population.

This link between fertility and conservatism is found not only in the United States but in Europe, Israel, the rest of the Middle East, and elsewhere. There is a strong correlation between adherence to traditional Christian, Judaic, or Islamic values and high fertility. And as an increasing share of all children is descended from people whose conservative values have led them to raise large families, we see the emergence of societies in which the patriarchal and highly pro-natal values of the Abrahamic religions are dominant...

The full text of this article is available for free on the Harvard Business Review website until Feb. 26, 2007. New America is not able to republish the full HBR text here, but Longman's March 2006 cover story for Foreign Policy, which explores this issue in depth, is available on NewAmerica.net.