
Study breaks down divorce rates by occupation: Engineers one of lowest  - cwan
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/16/AR2010091607509.html
======
Elite
Well you can't get divorced if you can't find a wife! I kid. I kid.

But engineers strike a good balance of time at home and financial
compensation. If you're making much more than a decent engineer, you're
probably a senior exec, lawyer, or business owner with not enough time for the
wife. Don't have any data to back this up, but just my suspicion.

If you're making much less than an engineer, you may run into money problems
which is a leading cause of divorce.

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rwhitman
I'd say there's a pretty obvious reason why bartenders have a higher divorce
rate than engineers - access to alternatives.

A bartender spends a good chunk of their time socializing with alternatives to
their spouse. They're bound to meet someone else eventually.

An engineer is typically cooped up in an office with a bunch of other
engineers. Not much in the way of alternate lovers...

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aresant
I dislike articles that are expansions of lists, when lists will do, so in
handy list form:

HIGH:

\- Dancers and choreographers (43.1 percent)

\- bartenders (38.4 percent)

\- massage therapists (38.2 percent)

\- Also in the top 10 were casino workers, telephone operators, nurses and
home health aides.

LOW:

\- optometrists (4 percent)

\- clergy (5.6 percent)

\- podiatrists (6.8 percent)

\- Three types of engineers -- agricultural, sales and nuclear engineers --
were represented among the 10 occupations with the lowest divorce rates

~~~
msluyter
_Also in the top 10 were casino workers, telephone operators, nurses and home
health aides._

And Mathematicians (#9).

Complete list is here: <http://hanson.gmu.edu/temp/DivorcebyJob.xls>

~~~
pohl
Alas, neither Numbers nor Google Spreadsheet seems happy with this file.

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ardit33
1\. Sweet, I went to Radford :)

2\. "Why are bartenders this way and engineers that way? Unfortunately we just
don't know," - eh, if you are a bartender your probably are meeting good
looking people daily. The temptation might be just too great to resist. As an
engineer, you are much more less likely to meet good look people during your
work, or even just people of the other sex, period.

~~~
mahmud
Or maybe you can't support a family with tips and minimum wage.

------
icegreentea
The easy jokes are all there. Engineering school gender ratios can really do
some funny things to your head. It really does make you value whatever
relationships you build with the other gender a lot more.

And I'm saying that from the perspective of an engineering student just
waiting to finish. Partly cause school is insane, and partly so I can rejoin
the real world where women actually out number men.

~~~
kqr2
_...so I can rejoin the real world where women actually out number men._

With regards to the real world, it depends on where you live. From:
[http://www.siliconvalleybachelor.com/2009/02/man-jose-its-
of...](http://www.siliconvalleybachelor.com/2009/02/man-jose-its-
official.html)

 _The Census Bureau recently released it's numbers showing that there are 117
men for every 100 women in San Jose amongst the ages of 20 to 44 years old._

------
credo
Unless my interpretation is wrong, I'd say that almost all the comments in
this thread are based on a misinterpretation of the article (or based on
assumptions that are not supported by any data in the article)

Notice these key sentences in the article. " _If a person had divorced and
remarried by the time of the Census, they would be counted as married. So it
could be the case that people in some occupations are just quicker to jump
into the next marriage than others._ "

The numbers don't suggest that engineers divorce at a lower rate than others.
They suggest that engineers are less likely to be in a divorced state (but
this could either be due to less engineers divorcing or more engineers
remarrying quickly).

------
muhfuhkuh
I like how our eye doctors (4%) adhere to the sanctity of marriage better than
our religious leaders (5.6%).

------
myth_drannon
I think they were politically correct in calling Strippers as Dancers. That
would explain the highest divorce rate....

~~~
digitallogic
The study was derived from census data where occupation is self reported which
makes me think you may have a point.

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phamilton
Could it also have something to do with problem solving? Engineers can be
stubborn, but also stubborn in the sense that they don't like throwing the
towel in.

Or that engineers are logical? As my father-in-law once said (when he was a
guest family lawyer on a reality TV show.) "If you are wondering how much it
costs to get divorced, just ask me if I'm still married." (Note: that was in
jest, but his wife still gave him a hard time about it.) Divorce sucks all
around. Figuring out the problem and trying to fix it is a much better
solution that divorce.

------
fleitz
It seems to me that the occupational study results correlate well to income
and income stability. It's well known that financial problems are a major
cause of divorce.

~~~
aidenn0
Indeed, I'd like to see the study adjusted for income.

------
msluyter
What I find odd about this is the ranking of mathematician. I would have
thought they'd be on par with engineers. Anyone have an explanation why they'd
rank so high?

~~~
mahmud
Where in the article did it say anything about mathematicians?

~~~
msluyter
I looked at the complete list (linked to from Robin Hanson's blog:
<http://www.overcomingbias.com/2010/09/low-divorce-jobs.html>).

Mathematicians are #9.

~~~
mahmud
That's a much more interesting article. Thanks.

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gte910h
I'd love to see the whole table....

~~~
artmageddon
msluyter linked it below: <http://www.overcomingbias.com/2010/09/low-divorce-
jobs.html>

There's an Excel file halfway into the article. I'd copy the exact figures on
here but it's getting Websense'd :(

------
nerfhammer
Why massage therapists?

~~~
pohl
I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that daily access to physical contact
with clients might give rise to both temptation and jealousy.

~~~
nerfhammer
consistent with nurses and home health aides, but not podiatrists

