Your idea about age 25 does seem possible though it doesn’t match my personal history. I spent a year going into debt with no income while starting a company when I was 35, something I would not expect to do now that I have become a father at 38.

I don’t think your example of insurance companies treating people with children differently holds up. It seems natural to tell an insurance company how old you are. It seems more intrusive to tell them about your marital status or children. Certainly I think that is the case for car insurance or car rental, admittedly less so for life insurance.

Maslow’s hierarchy explains this. Someone who is poor and feels unsafe can be easily manipulated by threats to their safety. Someone who is wealthy enough that their basic needs are met is concentrating on higher needs such as the well-being of people who they are unlikely to ever meet.

For the example of Kansas, the people in question need evidence that the Republicans are out to get them.

In Australia the “Liberal” party (which is not liberal at all) won an election based on the fact that “Labour” might make the economy worse (seriously). Then they lost an election badly after they introduced legislation to significantly cut salaries to the lowest paid workers. This is of course a gross simplification of Australian politics.

As for the issue of becoming “conservative” as you get older. I have read a paper about an analysis of brain development showing that at the age of about 25 most people become significantly less enthusiastic about taking risks (but I couldn’t find the reference). One thing that is noteworthy is that insurance companies don’t want to offer life insurance to people under the age of 25, car insurance policies often specify that you must not lend the car to someone less than 25yo, and car rental companies usually refuse to do business with anyone less than 25yo. It seems that there is a significant amount of statistical evidence compiled by insurance companies to show that before the age of 25 people are likely to do dangerous things that may result in their death or significant property damage.

If insurance companies believed that having children made people more responsible then I’m sure that they would put that in their calculations for premiums somehow.

It seems to me that the type of conservatism that leads people to not want to try a different style of clothing is linked to the same mental processes that makes them not want to try a new exciting sport or other activity that may risk their life.