coli brehs were ahead of the curve .. world is catching up
Birth rates will drop, people will stay single for longer and women will sexualise themselves more: Scientists predict how society will change in a post-COVID world
- A multidisciplinary team of experts reviewed 90 studies to make their forecasts
- The team predict various social impacts — even among those not infected
- Gender inequality could rise due to lockdown, as could social conservatism
- The ongoing pandemic is a 'worldwide social experiment', the researchers said
Psychological fallout from the pandemic will cause birth rates to drop, people to stay single for longer and women to sexualise themselves more, experts have predicted.
Experts from the US reviewed 90 studies to help them predict how
COVID-19 could shift social behaviours and gender norms — even among those not infected.
They expect planned pregnancies to decrease in response to the global health crisis as people defer marriage and kids, leading some nations' populations to shrink.
Drops in birth-rates will have cascading impacts on society and economics, affecting such things as job opportunities and support for elderly populations.
Furthermore, the unequal division of the extra household labour brought by lockdown could see gender inequality rise and foster more social conservatism.
In many ways, the researchers noted, 'the pandemic has become a worldwide social experiment' — the results of which have yet to finish playing out.
In turn, the team suggest, this trend could lead to a 'large-scale backslide toward "traditional" gender norms' — where women end up dependant on their men as 'breadwinners' — and related shifts further into
social conservatism.
'A consequence of the pandemic, therefore, could be a
reduction in tolerance across a range of issues,' the researchers wrote.
These could include, they added, less acceptance for 'non-monogamous mating arrangements, legal abortion, and rights for sexual minorities —who violate traditional gender roles and are also stereotyped as promiscuous.'
Furthermore, Professor Haselton said, economic inequality could see
many women sexualise themselves more in order to compete with each other for desirable men.
Post-coronavirus birth rates to 'fall' as people stay single longer | Daily Mail Online