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04/29/2008: "Soap operas cause population decline in Brazil"

A study by the London-based Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) says that Brazil's national addiction to soap operas is to blame for a drastic decline in fertility rates there over the past four decades.

The small families depicted on the soaps, the study says, are causing real women to want fewer children of their own.

The shows, produced by top commercial network Globo, definitely have a "sizeable but not huge effect" on how many children Brazilian women want, one of the study's authors told the AFP.

Census figures and other data show that the fertility rates in Brazil have plummeted from 6.3 children per woman in 1960 to 2.3 children in 2000.

[ The extent of social engineering through tv shows is shocking. It is a good thing that it is having this effect in Brazil, but it makes you think about how molded people generally are by what they watch on the box. ]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2008/04/16/2008-04-16_brazils_decline_in_fertility_blamed_on_s.html