EclectEcon

Economics and the mid-life crisis have much in common: Both dwell on foregone opportunities

C'est la vie; c'est la guerre; c'est la pomme de terre . . . . . . . . . . . . . email: jpalmer at uwo dot ca


. . . . . . . . . . .Richard Posner should be awarded the next Nobel Prize in Economics . . . . . . . . . . . .

Monday, March 07, 2005

Smells, Marriage, and the Divorce Pill

In response to my earlier piece about a woman wanting to divorce her husband because he smells bad, JC sent me this summary of some research about the detrimental effects of birth control pills on a woman's sense of smell, thus inducing her to make an incorrect marital choice:

[T]he Pill makes women feel pregnant, so they feel like they need to be protected. And they tend to go for a guy who smells like their father or brother. ...[T]hat's why women pick the wrong men and the divorce rate is so high.

Herz, a Brown University professor and odor expert, believes that
before you marry someone, you should get off the Pill.

Quite frankly, I don't buy it. Why should marrying someone who offers protection, stability, and support lead to marital breakdown? Is it that women on the pill get the wrong signals about which type of men will offer these virtues? Or is it that, except when they are pregnant, women are risk-seekers?
 
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