Most people who want and have kids assume that anyone who is childfree is missing out, but a new study found that adults who choose not to have kids have an openness to experience that their family-tethered peers don’t.
Identifying as childfree by choice often comes with a selfish stereotype. Although societal views are changing, it’s a slow process, and anyone who doesn’t want to have kids has to deal with a whole host of negativity.
Wanting to have a family is awesome, but so is not wanting to have a family. And if you’re one of those people who would rather not raise kids, don’t hide it. Turns out your innate love of trying new things is a rare and enviable trait that makes life a whole lot more exciting.
Childfree people are more open to experience, according to a study.
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What the researchers found was that most childfree people aren’t selfish at all. Traits they do share, however, are a strong curiosity and a sense of wanderlust, which researchers found make them more likely to travel, explore new ideas, and even pursue short-term romantic relationships.
In short, they have an openness to experience that others just don’t. Researcher, author, and professor, Jeffrey Davis, M.A., explained, “In the field of psychology, openness to experience refers to our measurable individual interest in art and beauty, our attention to our sensations and feelings, our intellectual curiosity, our preference for variety, and our active imagination. Put simply, it is the drive to explore novel aspects of human experience and the willingness to consider perspectives different than your own.”
By definition, being open to experiences makes you the opposite of selfish. People with this trait are awed by the world and the differences and similarities that make it great.
Openness to experience makes you perceive the world differently.
Researchers at the University of Melbourne in Australia found that people who are open to experiences tend to be more creative and better able to process information, both abstract and concrete, and further, they are purportedly more likely to be liberals. The researchers discovered that people with openness to experience literally perceive the world differently in basic visual perception.
As Psychology Today noted, “Openness reflects a tendency to pursue and enjoy unfamiliar things. Therefore, it makes sense that this trait is positively correlated with innovative thinking — those who are particularly open to experience have been shown to have more active imaginations and a greater appreciation for aesthetics and beauty.”
Does this mean that people with kids are narrow-minded? No, but it does mean that their view of the world is much smaller. It has to be. Their world needs to be focused on raising their kids to be happy and healthy adults. That means the tiny details of getting the kids to school, teaching them to tie their shoes, and figuring out how to get them to eat their vegetables become focal points of life. The childfree have a different reality, and that gives them a larger view of life and how to experience and perceive it.
Childfree people are not missing out on life.
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Being childfree is a life choice, just like having kids is. Life satisfaction is not affected by the choice unless it wasn’t one you wanted to make.
A 2021 study found no differences in life satisfaction and only limited differences in personality traits between childfree people and parents. However, the researchers noted that the one personality difference that they found was that having children resulted in lower openness to experience.
Being childfree may not be a sign of a better quality of life, but there is a rare trait that makes you a unique individual compared to your parenting counterparts. As the author and expert on the history of childless women in Western culture, Dr. Rachel Chrastil explained, “Life satisfaction, and the ability to exert one’s will on one’s life, are higher for people who’ve never had children.”
That might be hard for parents to understand because they are fulfilling their dream by raising kids. But just like some people prefer coffee to tea, we all have different measures of what being fulfilled means, and that’s okay.
Laura Lomas is a writer with a Master’s degree in English and Creative Writing who focuses on news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
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