I assumed the American divorce rate levelling in recent years was the direct result of those who dislike marriage no longer feeling societal pressure to become betrothed. Fewer marriages with weak foundations, fewer divorces. But the Washington Post has another, more-scientific, theory: Wedlock has declined because men are smacking the meat until it’s red and raw. There’s an idea linking fewer marriages to the easy availability of Internet pornography. Hmmm, I’m not yet convinced, and even the scientists behind the research acknowledge their work is not conclusive. From Roberto A. Ferdman at WaPo:

“There could be an unlikely contributor to the decline of marriage in this country. And it’s free pornography on the Internet.

A team of researchers, who published their findings in The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Germany, determined that the rise of free Internet pornography is not only correlated with a pronounced decline in percentage of young adult males who are married, but might actually be contributing to the trend.

‘The results in this paper suggest that such an association exists, and that it is potentially quite large,’ the study notes.

The researchers used data from the General Social Survey (GSS), a comprehensive, nationally representative survey, to analyze how 18-to-35 year-old men used the Internet between 2000 and 2004. They focused on  how many hours each participant spent on the Internet per week, and how many reported having used the Internet to view pornography in the past 30 days, but also observed other activities, including the use of religious websites.

‘We asked ourselves, what is helping determine whether people are married or not?’ said Dr. Michael Malcolm, a professor at the University of West Chester, Pennsylvania, and one of the study’s authors. ‘One of those things, we thought, could be the use of pornography.'”