From Sperm to Fatherhood: An Experimental Approach to Determinants of Paternal Responsibility

Abstract

During the last decades, there has been a substantial change in family structure in Western societies. The standing of the classical nuclear family has changed from the norm to just one option out of many, and the understanding of family has diversified. Biologically deterministic conceptions of parenthood have thus started to erode. Despite this, the circumstances under which a biological father is perceived as a social father have not been studied so far. Across four experimental studies, we tried to explore the antecedents which explain differences in the ascription of social fatherhood. Study 1 (N = 85) provided strong support for the notion that the level of perceived social fatherhood differs between one-night stands and sperm donation. Three additional experiments empirically tested the plausibility of three potential reasons for this large difference. Study 2 (N = 88) provided no support for the role of the naturalness of the insemination process. Study 3 (N = 341) tested the role of the time of negotiation of fatherhood but did not provide support for the idea that the time of negotiating fatherhood (before vs. after conception) determines attributions of responsibility. A final Study 4 (N = 173), however, supported the notion that a woman's strategy of negotiating sex as a functional means to achieve a pregnancy reduced paternal responsibility. The sex of the rater as an independent variable did not have any effect on the ascriptions of fatherhood. Across all studies, we neither found a main effect of sex of the rater on ascription of fatherhood nor an interaction with the experimental condition. The results of the studies are discussed with respect to changing conceptions of fatherhood.

Keywords: Attribution; Family; Fatherhood; Gender; Social perception.