Myth: Blackouts and storms cause a baby boom
Legend says that major natural disasters and other events that prevent people from going out are followed by a surprising spike in baby births nine months later. There are the “blizzard babies,” the “blackout babies” and even babies conceived after major terrorist attacks.
The theory is that blackouts and storms make people spend more time indoors and engage in sexual activities more often than in a normal situation. While this might seem like a rom-com scenario, the reality is that it’s just an urban legend, as S. Philip Morgan, a Duke professor of sociology and demography put it.
“It is evidently pleasing to many people to fantasize that when people are trapped by some immobilizing event which deprives them of their usual activities, most will turn to copulation,” demographer J. Richard Udry also agrees. “However, these ‘booms’ typically prove to be nothing more than natural fluctuations in the birth rate (or, in many cases, no variation in the birth rate at all).”
Speaking of children, check out Successful Children and 10 Habits of The Parents Who Raised Them.
This next myth is all fingers and thumbs…..
