Family values may have declined over the 20th century, but blood remains thicker than water – just about. That’s according to a comparison of childless couples in 1910 with those of today.
Thomas Pollet at the University of Newcastle, UK, and Robin Dunbar of the University of Oxford studied US census data from 1910. They found that childless couples were three times as likely to have young nephews and nieces living with them as were couples with children. “These young children would be a biological cost,” says Pollet, because they would need feeding and clothing.
The fact that couples did…
