By Max

July 30, 2010 6:42 AM | Link to this

No, but some divorces are the result of contagions. Marriage is the cause of all divorces.

By JS

July 30, 2010 10:05 AM | Link to this

Max gets the Jackie Mason award today. My answer, yes. Notice how divorce has lost the stigma it oncwe had? It’s become acceptable and, in some circles, a cliche. Even a fashion. Divorced women are no longer pariahs. Whether that’s all a good or bad thing is another issue.

By Crazy

July 30, 2010 10:38 AM | Link to this

No, I don’t believe divorce is contagious. I believe that most people in today’s times use it as a crutch. Any little thing and divorce is their answer. Remember the old times when divorce was rare and viewed as a bad thing. Those people stuck together and worked through their problems instead of taking the “easy” route and walking away. I’m 27 yrs. old and have been married for 3yrs. My parents divorced when I was 11 and the one thing that taught me was that I don’t want to put my child/ren throught the same horrible expeience that my sister and I went through. I believe in working it out. The only things that would ever push me to the point of divorce: phyical abuse and adultry.

By Max

July 30, 2010 11:52 AM | Link to this

@JS: “Divorced women are no longer pariahs.” ——-Well, the ones I have dated SHOULD BE and should not be allowed to own pets, firearms, indoor plants requiring weekly water, be alloted to no more than 4 restraining orders per month being filed against them,and…be randomly tested for HRT medication compliance as well as a post divorce block of counseling for anger management…..Yeah, I can relate to the ‘pariah’ status…..

By Comment

July 30, 2010 2:11 PM | Link to this

Divorce is what to do if the marraige doesn’t work out. However, many men stay with their psycho mates from hell due to economics, or other reasons only known to them. Many men who can’t/won’t divorce use the other option. They die. Do you know why? BECAUSE THEY WANT TO!!!!

By Sammy

July 30, 2010 4:40 PM | Link to this

@ Crazy: Spoken like someone who has only 3 years of experience with marriage. They all start out that way, high ideals and all but lets see how your “morals” hold up when 15 years down the road you find that you’ve realized that you’re a grown up but your husband hasn’t followed suit or that he still can’t manage to keep a job to save his life… so he doesn’t hit you but abuses you in other ways like helping to drink away your paycheck.. or is just an emotional black hole. There are lots of women who are divorced not because that was their first choice, to put their kids through h*ll, but because it was a better choice than staying. Careful, your “naive” is showing…

By Mike

July 30, 2010 4:47 PM | Link to this

There have been many psychological studies done over the years which show how easy it is for people to be influenced by the actions of those in their peer group or even within a group of strangers. It is a fact that people will often do things which they know are in direct conflict with their morals and ethics if they feel pressured to conform to the actions of the collective group. Even down to the inflicting pain or doing personal harm to another individual. We want to be accepted within our group. So it should no surprise that this can extend into the arena of marriage. We humans are easily swayed to do things which are in direct conflict with our best interests.

By pettyfog

July 31, 2010 10:29 AM | Link to this

‘Mike’ is right. Of course it’s contagious. Back off from the personal spite on here and manage to be married for 40 years and when you look back and think about it, each divorce in a social peer/family group causes the other members to reexamine their own relationships. If they see enough similarities to those who are calling it quits, they will too. And you dont need a university study to figure that out. Just some geezer wisdom.