How Exposure to the Opposite Sex Affects Divorce Rates.

When exposed to the opposite sex in abundance workplace environments, men and women

typically have higher divorce rates than if there was a scarcity of the opposite sex.
 Research from social and biological fields have suggested a correlation between sex ratio

and relationship behavior (Uggla 2018). Building on this, Scientists Caroline Uggla and Gunnar

Anderson sought to investigate the following: Is there was a correlation between the abundance

or scarcity of the opposite sex in the workplace and divorce rates of male/female marriages? The

general idea is that if you’re around more of the opposite sex during the day when you work, it

would seem that you are more likely to, for example, meet someone you like more than your

current spouse, and thus get a divorce. Uggla and Anderson hypothesized that because of this,

when exposed to more of the opposite sex, mate switching would increase and relationship

stability would decrease.

Uggla and Anderson used data from Danish male/female married couples between

1981-2002 (2018). This data about marriage/divorce status, sex, education level, length of

marriage, number of children, age at marriage, and residential location was readily available in

the Danish registry, making this an observational study. Denmark is also an ideal location for this

study, as divorce is relatively socially acceptable whether or not a couple has children or not, and

members of both sexes typically continue working after having children (Uggla 2018). Uggla

and Anderson measured and calculated divorce risk as a ratio based on sector occupation while

controlling for age at marriage, duration of marriage, metropolitan residence and number of

children. By comparing this risk ratio to the proportions of the opposite sex in certain sectors, if

Uggla and Anderson’s hypothesis is right, as the proportion of the opposite sex increases, so will

the divorce risk, as seen in Figure 1. If the hypothesis is wrong, there will be a negative or no

correlation between the two factors, as seen in Figure 2.

In their results, Uggla and Anderson found that the larger the surplus of men in a sector

occupation, the lower the divorce risk is for men (r = -.187), as seen in Figure 3 (2018).
Conversely, the larger the surplus of men in a sector occupation, the higher the divorce risk is for

women (r = .116), as seen in Figure 4. They also found that the aforementioned correlation was

especially stronger for men with tertiary education (r = -.21), whereas there was hardly any

correlation for women of different education levels (Uggla 2018).

The results of confirms Uggla and Anderson’s hypothesis that more exposure to the

opposite sex in the workplace correspondes with higher divorce rates in opposite sex marriages

and vice versa (2018). We can infer that with high exposure to the opposite sex, there are higher

opportunities to meet a new and better partner or the abundance of the opposite sex might

influence one’s perception of alternative partner choices, resulting in more divorces. One of the

measurements that was taken into account was whether or not someone lived in a metropolitan

area or not; an unresolved question is if there was any relationship between area of residence and

divorce rates. As metropolitan areas are more densely populated and are the homes for more

work sectors, I would wonder if the higher exposure of those living in metropolitan areas had

higher divorce risks than those who did not.

One interesting way you could spin this is to see if the same is true for same-sex couples.

Are men who are increasingly around other men in their workplace more likely to divorce their

husbands, and vice versa? We could use the same information from the Danish registry but for

same-sex couples; same-sex marriages in Scandinavia are also widely socially and legally

accepted, so that should not appear to be a huge inhibiting factor. If the trends are the same, then

we will see the a positive correlation between divorce risk and high exposure to the same sex, as

demonstrated by Figure 5, and if not, there could be no or a negative correlation instead, as seen

in Figure 6. It would be interesting to see if the same trends apply to a minority who grow up in a

vastly heteronormative environment.

Figure 3. The relationship between divorce

risk for men and proportion of men in the

work sector. The more men there are in a

sector’s workplace, the less like it is for men

in same sex relationships to divorce (Uggla

2018). (r = -.187)
Figure 4. The relationship between divorce risk

for women and the proportion of women in the

work sector. The more men there are in a sector’s

workplace, the more likely it is for women in

same sex relationships to divorce (Uggla 2018).

(r = .116)
 Literature Cited

Uggla C, Andersson G. 2018 Higher divorce risk when mates are plentiful? Evidence from

Denmark. Biol. Lett. 14: 20180475. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2018.0475