Divorce Can Be Contagious
According to a study from Brown University, divorce can be contagious. The study suggests that the divorce of a loved-one or a friend can increase your chances of getting divorced too.
The study was conducted in Framingham, Mass, and was based on data collected from thousands of people over three decades. The findings show that approximately 75 percent of participants were more likely to get a divorce if a friend was divorced. Approximately 33 percent were more likely to get a divorce if a friend of a friend got divorced.
The phenomenon is being called “a social contagion” and refers to attitudes, behaviors and the spread of information that occurs through friends, family and social networks. Other social contagious include the desire to get married, the desire to have kids and so on.
According to Talia Filippelli, a psychotherapist, “motions are contagious, and if you have somebody really unhappy in their relationship around you all the time, you may start to be a little bit more critical of your own relationship,”
However, when a few married couples were questioned and asked their opinion, they said that decisions made by other couples did not and should not influence them. Some said that the reaction to a friend/loved one’s divorce depended on the maturity level of the person and whether they allowed themselves to be influenced by other people’s life choices and situations.
Filippelli recommends a few strategies to avoid catching the divorce bug. She suggests that people should not associate themselves with their friends’ situations and should not make too many connections. She feels that the more connections one makes, the more likely it is that the connections are imaginary and may not be realistic.
Other studies have also addressed this issue and initial results suggest that just like the magnetism of marriage, divorce can also spread around in a social circle. The desire to get a divorce can be a rippling effect from a surrounding divorce of a friend or a loved one. This form of divorce clustering usually occurs among friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances that are like-minded or close.
“The contagion of divorce can spread through a social network like a rumour, affecting friends up to two degrees removed,” the research team wrote in their report.
The study authors point out that while the evidence they have presented is limited to a single network, it does show that the health of a friend’s marriage might serve as a source of support and enhancement to the durability of one’s own relationship. Thus, healthy relationships can encourage and support other healthy unions and vice versa.