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 . 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…
