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China's one-child policy creating pessimisticadults: studyPress Trust of India / Beijing January 11, 2013 16:35 IST

China's "little emperors" - kids born under the controversial one-child norm areless competitive, more risk-averse and significantly more pessimistic thanthose born before the policy was implemented in 1979, a new study hasclaimed.

While concerns about the "one child" practice in China, the world's mostpopulous nation, have been expressed before, Australian researchers havenow presented proof that these worries may not be totally unfounded.

"We found that people born under the one-child policy were significantly lesstrusting and less trustworthy, significantly less likely to take risks and lesscompetitive than those who were born before," lead author of the studyProfessor Lisa Cameron, from Monash University in Victoria, told the BBC'sScience in Action programme.

"We also conducted personality surveys and we found that those born underthe one-child policy were less conscientious, slightly more neurotic andsignificantly more pessimistic than those born before," Cameron said.

Researchers said the one-child policy has significant ramifications for ageingChinese society, leading to less risk-taking in the labour market and possiblyfewer entrepreneurs.

China's population-control policy was introduced in 1979, and it restrictscouples in urban areas to have only one child.

The study compared people who were born just before the policy wasintroduced with those born after.

They used economic games and surveys to assess behavioural andpersonality traits of 421 adults, half born a few years before the policy wasintroduced and the other half were born a few years after.

"In China, there is a very common belief that the one-child generation is spoiltand selfish and they are not hardworking, even though it is a common belief,no-one has ever tested this thing, or given hard evidence - and that is why wedecided to study this," said Professor Xin Meng, from the Australian NationalUniversity in Canberra.

She said that China was currently reconsidering its policy, and she hoped theresults of the study would be taken into account.

The team added that the one-child policy was not strictly enforced throughoutthe country, so the results should not be applied to everyone in China.

Professor Stuart West, from the University of Oxford, said that the team wasmaking a very strong claim and the differences between the two groups mightnot be solely down to the policy.

The new study was published in journal Science.