Here is a question you might never want to ask the person you love (but that maybe you should): If we were no longer together, do you think you would be happier? My guess is that you think you already know the answer to this question. But if new economic research is anything to go by, you probably don’t, and not knowing could put your relationship at risk.
Tag: marriage (Page 1 of 5)
Almost one half of all Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 have never been married, while the majority of those say that they hope to marry one day (61% with absolute certainty). This suggests that there are millions of men and women in this age group who are working towards the goal of finding that one true love.
Back in October, Mose Znaimer invited me to come and speak at the Zoomer Life Conference. I though that this was the perfect opportunity to talk about a subject I have been curious about for a long time – How is is that older women are perpetually sold this idea that they have no value on the dating market? You can see the video of that talk here.
When we choose to become parents we know that we will have to sacrifice sleep, that we will have to give up our independence, and that we will have to put the needs of others before our own; we know that there are some costs to having children that cannot be measured in dollars. But, when the calculating costs of having children should we also include the cost of losing the love of our spouse?
I’m single…and totally bored with articles complaining about the questions singles are asked by concerned friends and family (see for example, “I’m Single… and Totally Bored With These 5 Questions”). For several decades, the supposedly offending questions have not changed: Why aren’t you married? Are you being too picky? Are you gay? How will you take care of yourself when you are old and grey?
This has been a week of questions about rape. Dr. Phil started it all off by asking his followers their opinion on having sex with drunk girls. This encouraged many to question what (or, if) he could have possibly been thinking when he insinuated that the acceptability of having sex with drunk teenaged women was subject to debate. That response led Tracy Clark-Flory at Salon to ask a whole series of questions; important questions about how we think about rape, many of which have no clear answers.
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of presenting at the ideacity conference on my favorite topic – the economic markets for sex and love (that talk can be found here, if you are interested in hearing the whole spiel). During that presentation I shared my belief that access to the internet is, perhaps counter-intuitively, good for marriage; the benefits of being able to search for love on a significantly larger market outweighs the costs in terms of martial infidelity.
The Sunday Times asked me how the new markets for sex and love were affecting marriage and divorce. Here are my thoughts in a column in this Sunday’s paper,
Buzzfeed asked me if the outcome of the current budget debates in the US will affect people’s sex lives – you can see that article along with some very cool graphics here.
This week I went head-to-head with Dan Slater, author of Love in the Age of Algorithms. Who knew talking about love could be so messy? You can hear that heated exchange here.
