“We hypothesized that the quantitative and qualitative literary output of famous writers would correlate with their number of mates, children, and grandchildren. We further assumed that writing lyric poetry would be more beneficial for mating success than nonpoetry because the former consists of more verbal handicaps (e.g., rhymes) than the latter and thus requires special […]
Tag: marriage
Wedding spending and marriage duration, linked?
Are higher wedding expenses associated with longer-lasting marriages? And is the phrase “A diamond is forever” just a fairytale? Professors Andrew M. Francis and Hugo M. Mialon of the Economics Department at Emory University, US, express their opinions in their forthcoming paper for Economic Inquiry, entitled: ‘‘A Diamond is Forever’ and Other Fairy Tales: The […]
Disruptive technology: Twitter and marital breakups, maybe
If you enjoy fun, conceivably-partly-true tales about disruptive technologies (as some people do — see, for example, Harvard Business School Professor Clay Christensen‘s tidy tales of disruption), then pay heed to the scholarly studies from Russell B. Clayton. Clayton, at the University of Missouri-Columbia, has a new study about Twitter and marital breakups: “The Third Wheel: The Impact of Twitter Use on […]
A new pope, a new look at sacerdotal celibacy
The Catholic Church recently gave itself a new pope. On the question of priests engaging in sexual reproduction, history is repeating itself. The last time around, we wrote (in 2005), in The Guardian: Whenever there is a new pope, the air fills with questions about priestly celibacy. The more formal term for this practice is […]