Award-winning sociologist and PRRI Affiliated Scholar Samuel Perry, Ph.D., recently joined me for a fascinating conversation about his new scholarship on pronatalism, “insecure masculinity,” and Christian nationalism.
“Declining American birth rates are a growing national concern, especially among the Christian right….”
In March 2026, Perry published an article on this topic, The Right Kind of Children: Christian Nationalism, Religiosity, and Support for Selective Versus General Pronatalism, in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.
Using data from the 2025 PRRI American Values Survey, Perry finds that traditional religiosity, such as regular church attendance, is associated with support for general pronatalist policies. But support for selective pronatalism is driven by something different: Christian nationalism, belief in replacement theory, and what Perry terms “insecure masculinity”— the sense that men are losing status in a changing society.
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