Natural Selection Against Antinatalism Means Voluntary Human Extinction Will Not Work
It is very reasonable to posit that the psychological profile of antinatalists is heritable. It follows that this ideology will select against itself and result in a more pronatalist population.
What is Antinatlism?
Antinatalism is a philosophy most frequently associated with South African philosopher David Benatar, who interestingly does not publicly show his face. According to wikipedia:
Antinatalism, or anti-natalism, is the ethical view that negatively values coming into existence and procreation. Antinatalists argue that humans should abstain from procreation because it is morally wrong (some also recognize the procreation of other sentient beings as problematic).
There are a number of arguments for this position. Many seem to employ intuitivist reasoning via thought experiment. I assume the most persuasive argument for most antinatalists is that life is composed of a lot of suffering and that it is wrong to inflict that suffering on others. They can point to all the atrocities of history, the pointlessness of the world and the continued suffering that takes place. Many believe that people are irrationally optimistic about life’s pleasures.
I could see antinatalism compromising of a disproportionate number of people with the following traits:
Intelligence. Entertaining ideas about moral philosophy involves some higher levels of intelligence usually.
Irreligiosity. Religious people usually feel they have a higher purpose and many believe having children is a part of that.
Depression. I have to imagine that the average antinatalist feels their own life is comprised of a lot of suffering and they feel other’s lives must be as well. I imagine depressed people are receptive to this ideology.
Left-Wing Values. Many antinatalists think a lot about causing harm, which is typically a more left-wing moral consideration. They also seem likely to be sympathetic to environmentalism, veganism and abortion rights.
The Heritability of Traits
Through twin studies and other genetic research, geneticists can estimate the heritability of various physical and psychological traits. This includes complex traits like political attitudes. It is not that you have a gene that tells says you will support an increase in the minimum wage. It is that you have many genes which influence your psychological profile making you more prone to liking the idea of a minimum wage increase. In addition to political attitudes, mood disorders are heritable as well. In the case of depression, heritability is probably around 40-50%. Furthermore, Religiosity is heritable as well with the degree of heritability depending on stage of life.
The Hypothesis
I hypothesize the following:
The psychological profile of someone who is an antinatalist is heritable.
Antinatalists do not have children and therefore do not pass on their antinatalist genetic tendencies.
Therefore, the psychological profile common among antinatalists will become increasingly uncommon if antinatalism becomes popular and the remaining population will be more pronatalist.
Antinatalists could be very aggressive in their social stigma and try to enact government policy to prevent people from having children. I do not believe this is a common position among antinatalists as far as I know but I imagine if government policy were tried these policies would likely fall out of favor within a generation or two because nobody would be left to support them. If birth was prohibited, then very pronatalist people would flee the country or secretly hide their pregnancies or submit to whatever punishment but the harsher the persecution of birthers the harsher the selection for pronatalist tendencies. As the inhabitants of antinatalist countries died off, they could be repopulated by pronatalists who would likely have a happier disposition.
This does not mean that antinatalism is incorrect or that it is morally acceptable to have children. It does mean that the idea that humans would gradually cease having children and commit voluntary extinction is extremely unlikely.
Question to consider: What other characteristics have genetic overlap with antinatalism? Would it be similar to how sickle cell anemia is caused by genes that prevent malaria? Also, are there subtypes of antinatalism (those who only reproduces in stable environments vs those who reproduces in any environment)?