Study Claims Smarter Women Have Fewer Kids

Controversial research out of the London School of Economics claims that women with higher IQs have fewer children. Psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa, author of The Intelligence Paradox, found that maternal instincts fall by 25 percent with every extra 15 IQ points.

Kanazawa says the reason for the linkage is unknown but that it does not have to do with higher educational and career pursuits, as many people assume.

The researcher argues that smarter women are harming society by not passing along their genetic gifts to the next generation.

“If any value is truly unnatural, if there is one thing that humans (and all other species in nature) are decisively not designed for, it is voluntary childlessness… Reproductive success is the ultimate end of all biological existence,” writes Kanazawa in his book.

The researcher’s findings come on the heels of several reports highlighting declining birthrates in the United States. From 1976 to 2010, the percentage of women who reach ages 40 to 44–the typical end of childbearing years–with just one child has climbed from 10 percent to 19 percent. 

News over declining American birthrates has sparked a debate over whether women who choose not to have children are behaving selfishly or whether having a child without the means to raise it and shifting that economic burden to taxpayers is more selfish.