Evidence of a negative bias toward people who are childfree by choice

For many people, the decision to have children or not is one of life’s most personal decisions. The number of people without children is growing in many Western countries. Some of these people consciously choose not to have children. In three studies (Study 1 N = 475; Study 2 N = 450; Study 3 N = 293), we provide evidence of a negative bias toward people who choose to be childfree. We compared the childfree to several other social categories as well as people who are involuntarily childless, adoptive parents, and parents of their biological children. Relative to childless people, adoptive parents and parents, participants generally rated childfree people as the least positive. Childfree people were rated low in warmth, but high in competence. Childfree women were rated lower in warmth than childfree men. Discrimination toward childfree people was predicted by perceived narcissism, dehumanization, and violation of pronatalist norms. This research provides evidence of a negative bias toward people who choose not to have children.