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Lots of people are sharing a The Times piece about librarians having longer marriages. Here's the actual study: dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2018.0475 It is: a. not open-access b. covers individuals in Denmark who married between 1981-2002Permalink On Internet Archive
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c. the actual conclusion (from the abstract: I don't have access to the article) is that "Results support the prediction that a higher proportion of opposite-sex individuals in one's occupational sector is associated with higher divorce risk."Permalink On Internet Archive
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The study is about sex ratios of occupational sector and how this correlates to divorce rates: generally, the more opposite-sex individuals there are to people in their occupational sector, the higher the rate of divorce.Permalink On Internet Archive
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Librarianship appears to be correlated with lower divorce rates from this conclusion because of the heavily skewed sex ratio in librarianship. Again, I can't read the study but I'm guessing librarianship in Denmark is heavily skewed towards female workers like in the UK.On Internet Archive
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The study therefore isn't saying that there's anything intrinsic about librarianship-as-a-profession that correlates with lower divorce rates. It's simply the coincidence that librarianship has a heavily one-sided sex ratio.Permalink On Internet Archive
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#donttrustTheTimesPermalink On Internet Archive
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You can also note from the supplementary material (dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4227995) that 'Farming' actually has a lower relative risk (RR) of divorce for men and women at 0.60 and 0.55 respectively than 'Library' at 0.73 and 0.73.Permalink On Internet Archive
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But, making some assumptions, I guess that's a less clickbait-y conclusion for a journalist to write about given the demographics of The Times readers.Permalink On Internet Archive
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Emily @EBNunn also has a cracking thread about this bad The Times article @EBNunn/1044888951520145409Permalink On Internet Archive
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Final point: it's worth noting that there is a CC BY 4.0 preprint version of the journal article referenced at figshare.com/articles/Higher_divorce_risk_when_mates_are_plentiful_Evidence_from_Denmark/6954920 (thanks @rmounce)Permalink On Internet Archive