Robots and Family Change: Technological Reinforcement of the Second Demographic Transition

• In Event: Science, Knowledge & Technology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 1: AI and Changing Social Norms

Abstract

The rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics marks a new industrial revolution with implications extending beyond labor markets to family life. While prior research has focused on employment effects, less is known about how these technologies reshape marriage and fertility. This study examines how exposure to industrial automation, measured by provincial industrial robot density, reinforces the Second Demographic Transition (SDT) by altering the economic, organizational, and normative foundations of family formation. Linking province-level robotization data to 53,230 individual observations from the China General Social Survey (2006-2018), we show that greater exposure to robotics significantly delays and reduces marriage, increases cohabitation and divorce, reduces fertility intentions, and more stratified marriage matching. Mechanism analyses identify three pathways: gendered labor-market restructuring that weakens men’s breadwinner advantage while improving women’s employment, changes in household labor that raise the costs of marriage for women, and normative shifts toward greater sexual permissiveness and weaker endorsement of marriage and filial obligations. These findings suggest that robotization does not introduce a new demographic logic but reinforces SDT dynamics, helping explain the persistence of low fertility and marriage decline in the age of AI and robotics.

Authors

• Ruiyu Wang, Shanxi Normal University

• Ting Wang, University of North Carolina-Greensboro

• Bing Ye, Zhejiang University