A fascinating article came out in Science in August of 2016 that could answer the question of “How can we cut the divorce rate?” Although the paper was presented at the American Sociological Association, it’s unlikely that you’ve heard of it.
The paper was based on findings from a long term study on the effects of porn on marriage. Although researchers already found the link between porn consumption and marital unhappiness, these researchers examined long term effects.
What they found was that the divorce rates doubled in marriages where porn consumption occurs. Think what these findings mean for your marriage.
If the divorce rates doubled in those marriages, one way to cut the divorce rate in half is eliminating porn.The porn problem is not limited to just husbands or wives either. Porn is no longer “just a man thing“. Porn is consumed by husbands and wives.
Based on this research you can address the issue of porn in your marriage from a scientific basis rather than only being limited to a moral one. In other words, there is scientific evidence about the dangers involved.
A closer examination of the details was that the divorce rate of those in the study had some surprising findings depending on your gender.
“For men, the chance of divorce went from 5% to 10%. For women, that number jumped from 6% to 18%.”
Before you start to panic, the survey also found that when women quit watching porn the numbers fell back to previous levels. With you men, the effects were not so dramatic.
Eliminating porn consumption is a way of reducing the risk of divorce. It tells me that there’s hope for those who are caught up in consuming porn.
There’s also been studies done on porn and it’s impact on extramarital affairs. What was found was that consumption of pornography leads to people viewing affairs in a positive light.
These findings don’t surprise me much and probably don’t surprise you either. It leads me to wonder if those who view affairs as a ‘good’ thing consume pornography as well. Chances are, they do.
Although the intention of the researchers was to see what porn’s effect was on people’s attitudes towards affairs, those same results are revealing going the other direction as well. perhaps people’s attitudes toward affairs may indicate porn consumption.
What’s at the root of each study is that when your spouse and your marriage are not the priority, it leads to problems.
If your marriage needs repair, you may want to consider the Affair Recovery Workshop as a way of tuning it up and giving it an major overhaul in terms of improving communication, increasing intimacy, reducing game playing and enhancing the quality of your relationship.
Best Regards,
Jeff
