Stories of women complaining about the lack of quality men have long infused pop culture—from “Pride and Prejudice” to Taylor Swift’s oeuvre. Yet women throughout history rarely questioned whether finding and securing a romantic partner should be a primary goal of adulthood.
This seems to be changing. Over half of single women said they believed they were happier than their married counterparts in a 2024 AEI survey of 5,837 adults. Just over a third of surveyed single men said the same.
Source Article 🔗 from WSJ
Weird stat. There's a huge selection bias here. People who prefer being single are more likely to stay single, and people who prefer marrying are more likely to marry. I bet if you asked married women whether married women or single women are happier, they'd say married women.
This is a bit like asking basketball players whether basketball or baseball is more fun
I didn't bother looking for it, but I've seen happiness reporting that shows married women report higher average happiness levels.
Now, I think that literature is fundamentally silly, but that result makes sense to me.
I don't know much about the literature on happiness, so can't speak to the quality, but I do like that some people are trying to look at non traditional metrics for social objectives
I also like that people are looking at different metrics. There's just no way of knowing what to make of one group reporting an average happiness of 7.2 vs another reporting 5.8.
Are their expectations the same? Do they think about the different points on the scale the same way?
With a dif-in-dif, you could take care of some of that, but direct comparisons don't really tell you much. And, even then you don't know if you should think happiness changed or the scale changed.
Not for men?
Isn't it a comparative study between like to like - Single Men and Single women?
Then why are most single men believe they are unhappy than maried men?
Look at the chart again, the question posed to the men is also about the happiness of women
F**k! I've read the study in detail and didn't see that doesn't imitate the chart. This is written right above the chart here https://www.americansurveycenter.org/research/the-state-of-american-romance-how-politics-and-pessimism-influence-dating-experiences/
And it just created the whole confusion. I take my questions back. ;)
No worries. In any case, that would suggest that more single males are involuntarily single, while more single women are voluntarily single.
The selection bias is still there, it's just smaller in magnitude for men
Thanks 🙏
Yep, 100%
Is this wave of happy single women really a choice, or is it more a reflection of unsatisfying relationships? Because there’s a big difference between saying, "I don’t want to get married because I’m great on my own" and "I’d rather be alone than get into another bad relationship." If the second option is more common, it means that it's not single life that's becoming more attractive, but rather that relationships aren’t worth it. And that should be a wake-up call for everyone—especially for the guys who want a relationship but aren’t offering the bare minimum for a balanced partnership.
The survey has included both types.
Simple solution, fellas.
Don’t marry an American woman.
Turns out if society turns men into emasculated sensitive little bitches women lose interest.
I think people have been eating out of the can of shit that the government has been feeding everyone.
Arent humans supposed to be social creatures?