MONDAY: PROOF LOVE REALLY IS ADDICTIVE
doubled between 1960 and 1980. After doing research, I found that the same applies in more than 60 countries.
Some of their citizens are bankers, others herd cattle — but their divorces all cluster around the three to four-year mark.
The only exception is in traditional Muslim societies, where divorces occur most frequently after the first few months of marriage. And that’s largely because so many marriages are arranged.
In the West, one reason may be that so many young people expect to marry a soul-mate in perfect harmony with themselves.
When it turns out they haven’t, they bail out soon after the end of the infatuation stage. But there’s another reason buried deep in our past. In many traditional hunting-gathering tribes, the woman breast-feeds until the child is three or four. This suppresses ovulation.
Our earliest ancestors almost certainly did the same. And when the child was old enough to join a pack of children looked after by other adults, the father’s role as food gatherer and protector became largely redundant.
In other words, human pair bonds originally evolved to last just long enough to raise a single child through infancy. So the modern divorce peak of three to four years after marriage may, in fact, be a biological phenomenon.
Interestingly, 29per cent of all divorces occur among young couples with one child.
If they have two children, the number falls to 18per cent and only 5per cent of parents with three children ever head for the divorce court.
People without children are the most likely to divorce (43 per cent), thus freeing them to have children with someone else. And the couples least likely to split have four or more offspring. So, the more children there are in a family, the less likely it is that their parents will divorce.
What about middle-aged and older couples? You may expect some to grow bored with each other or to end unhappy marriages after the children have left home. Indeed, these age groups are divorcing more frequently than in the past. But don’t be fooled into thinking age is a major factor in divorce. The overwhelming majority of these spouses remain content with their choice.
In fact, if a couple get past the age of 34, they’re statistically less likely to divorce. And the ones who do leave a first marriage will almost all remarry.
Most tie the knot three or four years after divorcing. This is a pattern that has remained stable for decades.
They may have been buffeted by adultery and quarrels. But hope reigns eternal that the next spouse will remain faithful.
ADAPTED by Corinna Honan from Anatomy Of Love: A Natural History Of Mating, Marriage And Why We Stray by Helen Fisher (WV Norton & Co, £11.99). © Helen Fisher 2017. to buy a copy for £9.59 (offer valid until next Saturday), call 0844 571 0640 or visit mailbookshop.co.uk. p&p free on orders over £15.