Various political events undoubtedly affect the demographic situation. In some periods more children are born, in some less. But, oddly enough, wars and conflicts also affect the sex of future babies. Thus, terrorist attacks lead to a decrease in the frequency of birth of boys. This phenomenon was explained by the Maltese pediatrician Victor Grech.
Compensation law
Grech works at Mater Day Hospital in Malta and has been studying demography for many years. In her latest article, published in the journal Early Human Development, the researcher looks at the demographic impact of negative national events on fertility, in particular on the ratio of boys to girls.
It has long been established that slightly more boys are born on the planet than girls. There is the so-called Trivers - Willard hypothesis, according to which the sex of the unborn child is directly affected by the emotional state of his mother before and during conception. In 1973, zoologists Trivers and Willard suggested that the more prosperous parents live (say, the more accessible food resources are for them), the more likely it is that a boy will be born.
Also, after the war, the number of newborn boys always increases. Most researchers believe that nature seeks to fill in the "gaps" - after all, many men die at the front during the war, therefore, they will no longer become fathers, and women have less chances of conceiving children … If not a girl, but a boy is born, then evolutionary compensation occurs, restoring the balance of the population …
Emotions decide everything
Promotional video:
Since the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, more male babies have been born in the country. Victor Grech believes that the holding of the championship caused positive emotions in many people and they began to have more sex.
At the same time, in his study, Grech analyzes the impact of four specific negative events on the ratio of boys and girls. These are the ethnopolitical conflict in Northern Ireland (1969-1989), the riots in the United States caused by the beating of black taxi driver Rodney King by police (1992), the shooting of teenagers in a youth camp by Anders Breivik in Norway (2011) and, finally, the mass shooting in an American school Sandy Hook (2012).
Margarita Troitsyna