In yet another case of right-wing intellectual lethargy, the Family Research Council says it believes people are not marrying because of porn.Â
The anti-gay hate group Family Research Council, pointing to a study from a German think tank has concluded that people aren’t marrying because porn is a cheap and easy substitute for marriage.Â
FRC says the study “quantifies what every common-sensical person in the world knows intuitively: Viewing pornography discourages and damages marriage.”
But the Family Research Council, as usual, is twisting science to fit its agenda.
The Washington Post’s “Wonk Blog” looked at the same study and the decline in marriage rates.
“There are many reasons for the trend. One of the most provocative is the rise of wealth inequality. Andrew J. Cherlin made this point in a recent op-ed in the New York Times: Historically, low and stable inequality has coincided with periods of higher marriage rates among all socioeconomic groups. Marriage can be a expensive institution, especially without two sustainable sources of income. It’s likely of little coincidence that the United States is particularly unequal today, and its poor are particularly less likely to marry than the rich.”
So, that’s another, more insightful and rational explanation. Many people delay marriage because their economic future is uncertain.Â
The Post also noted that “The researchers, while careful to say that their findings fall short of being conclusive, insist that the relationship between the two also ‘likely runs in the direction that we assert.'”
There are other reasons to look at the study with a skeptical eye. First, the study uses data collected from 2000-2004, so, data that are a decade old. Many societal changes have occurred since. And as Jezebel notes, the study only looked at data from men, no women were included.
Finally, last year the same group that performed this study, the Institute for the Study of Labor, concluded that people who have sex more often make more money.
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