Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

Declining human fertility and the epidemic of despair

Nature Mental Health volume 2, pages 463–465 (2024)Cite this article

Subjects

Increasing inequality and social fragmentation may give rise to a collective state of despair that may not only diminish the desire to live but also dampen the drive to reproduce, resulting in shrinking fertility and population decline.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1

References

  1. Vollset, S. E. et al. Lancet 396, 1285–1306 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Skirbekk, V. Decline and Prosper! (Springer International, 2022).

  3. Haidt, J. The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness (Penguin Press, 2024).

  4. Twenge, J. M. & Campbell, W. K. Prev. Med. Rep. 12, 271–283 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Twenge, J. M., Haidt, J., Lozano, J. & Cummins, K. M. Acta Psychologica 224, 103512 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Case, A. & Deaton, A. Brookings Pap. Econ. Act. 397–476 (2017).

  7. Sterling, P. & Platt, M. L. JAMA Psychiatry 79, 368–374 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Eldar, E., Rutledge, R. B., Dolan, R. J. & Niv, Y. Trends Cogn. Sci. 20, 15–24 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Rutledge, R. B., Skandali, N., Dayan, P. & Dolan, R. J. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 111, 12252–12257 (2014).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. Orben, A. & Przybylski, A. K. Nat. Hum. Behav. 3, 173–182 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Braghieri, L., Levy, R. & Makarin, A. Am. Econ. Rev. 112, 3660–3693 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Fumagalli, E., Shrum, L. J. & Lowrey, T. M. J. Assoc. Consumer Res. https://doi.org/10.1086/728739 (2024).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Henrich, J. The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter (Princeton Univ. Press, 2015).

  14. Gurven, M. D. & Davison, R. J. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 116, 12758–12766 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  15. Boyd, R. & Silk, J. B. How Humans Evolved (W.W. Norton, 2020).

  16. Kearney, M. S., Levine, P. B. & Pardue, L. J. Econ. Persp. 36, 151–176 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge US National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants R01MH095894, R01MH108627, R37MH109728, R21AG073958, R01MH118203,866 R56MH122819 and R01NS123054 to M.L.P.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neuroscience, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Michael L. Platt & Peter Sterling

  2. Department of Psychology, School of Arts and Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Michael L. Platt

  3. Marketing Department, Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Michael L. Platt

Authors
  1. Michael L. Platt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Peter Sterling
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Both authors contributed equally to the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael L. Platt.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

M.L.P. is a scientific advisory board member, consultant and/or co-founder of Blue Horizons International, NeuroFlow, Cogwear Technologies, Glassview, Lazul and Speak Up Now, and receives financial support from AIIR Consulting, Slalom Inc, Mars Inc., Fox Media, Korn Ferry, the Philadelphia Flyers and the Lefkort Family Research Foundation.

Peer review

Peer review information

Nature Mental Health thanks Michael Gurven and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Platt, M.L., Sterling, P. Declining human fertility and the epidemic of despair. Nat. Mental Health 2, 463–465 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-024-00241-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-024-00241-1

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing