You can hang here with us and make super dark self deprecating jokes!

Thank you. Thats flattering. Id accept, you seem pretty cool

@Blindbird that's kind of you

@JimG not at all. Sane(ish)funny and attractive men are not easy to come by!

P.S. Did you read the unpolished jewels part? You may still find a hubby, depending on what you're looking for. Good luck.

@girlwithsmiles haha. Anybody that asks at this point is getting stabbed.

@Blindbird lols.

It's not just you. I kept thinking it sounded like something out of Cosmopolitan.

I would even go so far as to use multiple types of interviewers and collate the response...but I think his goal was specific...which results in specific directed information. And mostly obvious results....

and duh. Market study, not social study. So...duh. I'll shut up now.

@JohnnyThorazine obvious results- i agree...i'm struck by the impression that young folks are still feeling the pressure to go to school and get married. how drab! i wonder if they even know that they can be whole and vibrant without future tripping..

@JohnnyThorazine what is the difference? (sounds flip, but i am asking sincerely)

I read the entire piece, and it seemed to me not only was it heavily biased, it was biased towards a vision of stereotypical men. And as you point out, it's not a sociological study. I wonder if Shankar Vedantam has tackled this on his podcast Hidden Brain.
[npr.org]

@nightowl I forgot the difference for a minute, too...a market study focuses on it's one specific 'yes/no' result (not really yes/no, but I mean they 'why' isn't in there...which often effects the results you wouldn't want to only know that a village preferred a certain type of water, you might want to know that it preferred a certain type of water because the other type made people sick once, a market research might only find that a certain sector of people don't like a particular brand of water.) A question that immediately pops up for me is: what is the value of marriages that are created later in life? I bet they are better, have better foundations...but that is just me guessing. And I think it was sexist in the same way interviewing nazi's is racist....he was looking for a very specific view from that side...and got a very specific answer. A duh answer....but if you were a large corporation trying to sell, let's say, bachelor cards or whatever, you might use this to target the most viable age group..

@JohnnyThorazine bachelor cards!!! lol...gotcha. and effective explanation, thanks. i would just assume that dealing with people in any form or fashion should become easier=better, as we grow up. the ? that popped up for me was- is this 1960? aside from tax breaks, why do people want that piece of paper so badly? ego? meh.

@nightowl for things like hospital stuff (I believe that is the technical term...stuff...hehe), property, etc. Oregon doesn't have common law marriage, so it is moderately important for a long term relationship and responsibilities....I think if you decide to permanently cohabitate, you might want to get married to protect each other....but that is an only mildly informed opinion.

@bingst yeah, hence the market study and not sociological study...which is why we have things called ethics which are required for an economics major....but I believe a social study will make a long term change and an ingrained inherent value of whatever product you are trying to market...market studies are why we have some of these tasteless commercials...they are the result of short term studies without the 'why' factor thrown in.

@nightowl haha , why do people want that piece of paper? The war cry of the confirmed bachelor.

@JohnnyThorazine you are correct on all points. Its a flawed "study" at best.

@JohnnyThorazine Actually, My first husband and I got married after living together for 7 years because his job was outsourced and he went into business freelance and had no insurance benefits; also it was cheaper with respect to taxes, especially the first year when he made almost no money. It was before the whole "domestic partner" thing that is common today.

@Blindbird no shame in my game! lol

In respect to all the naysayers with negative comments regarding the methodology of the research article, one has to offer the benefit of the doubt to the researcher. If they (naysayers) were involved in conducting the research their selves, it is incumbent on them to identify any weaknesses in the methodology in the introduction of the article. Given that there was no such weaknesses identified, as a former undergraduate Psychology student myself, I am happy to accept the result, as should you all unless you are prepared to replicate the study yourself and prove otherwise..