'Baby fever' affects men too

''Baby fever'' is usually associated with women, who suddenly become conscious of their maternal urges. But, a team at Kansas State University has now claimed that men too suffer from the phenomenon.

“Baby fever is this idea out in popular media that at some point in their lives, people get this sudden change in their desire to have children. While it is often portrayed in women, we noticed it in men, too,” Gary Brase, who led the study, was quoted by the Daily Mail as saying.

In their study, the researchers started by applying three different theoretical viewpoints about baby fever. One is the socio-cultural view: People want to have a baby because they are taught gender roles. Women think they should have children because society dictates that is what they are supposed to do.

Another reason is the by-product view: Humans have an ingrained desire to nurture — when they see a cute baby they want to take care of it, and that makes them want a baby of their own. The third is the adaptationist view: Baby fever is an emotional signal — like a suggestion sent from one part of the mind to the other parts — that this could be a good time to have a child.

The researchers then performed experiments to understand people’s desires, particularly the wish to have a baby. Professor Brase said: “Sometimes you may have a desire to have a baby, sometimes you have desires to have money or be famous or have sex. We asked people to tell us where these desires ranked.”

The researchers found that baby fever did exist in both genders. But while women more frequently desired having a child than having sex, men more frequently desired sex than having a child.