Chapter 10 How many children do you want?

Let me ask a man or a woman straight to the point: Given total freedom to choose, how many children would you want?two?This answer is not only very important, but also very interesting, and it is worth studying carefully with Darwin's glasses on.Your choice reaffirms what I have been arguing for a long time: that we should look to evolutionary biology for the ultimate explanation of human behavior. Having said all this, you should already be aware that a fundamental understanding of human behavior can be greatly simplified with the help of evolutionary biology.In the process of evolution, human behavior has been forged by natural selection for hundreds of thousands of years, adapting to the surrounding environment.Human behavior has changed very little today compared to half a million years ago—unless we're talking about the influence of culture on behavior.Biologists are sometimes accused of placing too much emphasis on the genetic basis of behavior and underestimating the contribution of culture.This is true, but I still want to repeat the old saying, and hammer the rusty nail.For hundreds of years, people only believed in the influence of culture, which led to a deviation in the perspective of explaining human behavior, so now biologists have to focus on the importance of genes, and have been emphasizing the interaction between genes and the environment.Your choice of two children is a good example.Several articles in the newspaper made it clear that you are not alone in making this choice.

My eyes fell on a newspaper article announcing the results of a study: Although the law stipulates that each family can only have one child, in fact 83% of Chinese women would prefer two children.A weekly newspaper from the Flemish region of Belgium also conducted a survey in Belgium and got almost the same conclusion: most parents choose to have two children.Chinese mothers offer thoughtful explanations for their choices.For example, they feel that a child will be spoiled.And a spoiled person doesn't work very hard to climb the ladder in the midst of stiff competition, which means parents have to pay a loan for their child's future.At the same time, the article pointed out that this kind of argument has little effect in reality.Still, it's touching to watch mothers struggle to find a plausible explanation for a deep-seated mechanism that's genetically driven to bring more children into the world, the voice the genes make .Moms may be feeling hurt reading this, so I'm going to explain further.

Among the many mechanisms governing evolution, reproduction is the most important, because evolution must proceed through reproduction!Men and women who did not want to have children hundreds of thousands of years ago did not become our ancestors, we are descendants of those ancestors who did.Also, the greater the enthusiasm for reproduction, the greater the chance of having a large number of offspring, and thus the likelihood of our being in the world.Those who want lots of children spread the corresponding genes more than those who don't want children.Don't get mad at my little joke, it's not inherited without children.

To be upfront, I'm not talking about one or two, but many kids.A large amount of data shows that the mortality rate of prehistoric children is much higher than it is now.Today we are very surprised to hear that a baby has died.However, such tragic things happened to our ancestors from time to time.This is one of the reasons why men stay with the women who bear their children for a long time. They want to expand the chances of the child's survival by protecting and finding food.People who became our ancestors have an average of more than two children, and only in this way can we ensure that there are enough children to survive.The motive to reproduce drives people to have more children, so Chinese mothers don't have to find any rational explanation for their desire to have children. Their behavior is driven by genes that have existed for millions of years.

See, biologists use genes to explain everything!Oh no, my story isn't over yet.Newspaper and weekly articles noted that parents wanting two children was the most common.Supermoms who want four or five kids are the exception these days.Now, two ultimate interpretations that can interpret human behavior appear on the "stage": one is the environment, and the other is the influence of culture.When shorts were worn in the middle of the last century, it was not uncommon to have many children in a family.Mothers are busier than having a full-time job caring for offspring.Today's women can choose to have a career of their own while taking care of the family.The cultural awareness of the environment we live in has changed, and women have the opportunity to make money for themselves.Those jobs take so much time and energy that women no longer have the time and energy to juggle diapers, bottles, bread, school bags, and homework for four, five, or six kids.In other words, it's culture that puts the brakes on the number of children a human society wants.

As a result, the genes that drive mothers to have more children collide with circumstances that prevent those genes from functioning as well. That is, genetics fuels having more children, while culture brakes in the other direction, so that the balance is two children.Two kids is an average, as some moms brake too hard and others push the gas too hard. It makes sense that you want two children, because genes and culture go hand in hand in a fertile marriage.Thanks to the media for providing a good example for someone who wants to explain human behavior in terms of real ultimate causes.Thanks for the answer too, it would be wrong to say you don't make sense.