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Declining human fertility and the epidemic of despair

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

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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.

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Acknowledgements

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

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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
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  2. Peter Sterling
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Both authors contributed equally to the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael L. Platt.

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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.

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

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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

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