Dave’s Diary: Women Say “I Do” to Hubby and Booze

We all know the stereotype. It’s played out in the movies and on TV every day. Something about marriage, the wife, kids, responsibilities, or whatever, drives men to drink.  Only it’s a myth. In fact,  science says just the opposite is true…married women drink more than men! (You knew that didn’t you ladies!)The idea of married men taking out their old ball and chain frustration by boozing it up at the local pub is nonsense. Scientists are claiming that (a happy) marriage actually leads guys to a more sober lifestyle, drinking less than their single guy friends and way less than their divorced male friends but  the same is NOT true for married women who drink more than their single, divorced and widowed friends. 

 This is the first time researchers have broken out data to differentiate behavior in males vs. females and the qualitative results suggest this occurs because men introduce and prompt women’s drinking, and because divorced women lose the influence of men’s alcohol use upon divorce

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