The DOI matches its Crossref record; 17 of the 17 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
TARGET ARTICLE: Singles in Society and in Science
Abstract
We suggest that single adults in contemporary American society are targets of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination, a phenomenon we will call singlism. Singlism is an outgrowth of a largely uncontested set of beliefs, the Ideology of Marriage and Family. Its premises include the assumptions that the sexual partnership is the one truly important peer relationship and that people who have such partnerships are happier and more fulfilled than those who do not. We use published claims about the greater happiness of married people to illustrate how the scientific enterprise seems to be influenced by the ideology. We propose that people who are single-particularly women who have always been single-fare better than the ideology would predict because they do have positive, enduring, and important interpersonal relationships. The persistence of singlism is especially puzzling considering that actual differences based on civil (marital) status seem to be qualified and small, the number of singles is growing, and sensitivity to other varieties of prejudice is acute. By way of explanation, we consider arguments from evolutionary psychology, attachment theory, a social problems perspective, the growth of the cult of the couple, and the appeal of an ideology that offers a simple and compelling worldview.
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Cites
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The Consequences of Divorce for Adults and Children
Amato, P. R. (2000) · Journal of Marriage and Family · doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2000.01269.x · Cited by 2,931
Risky families: Family social environments and the mental and physical health of offspring
Repetti, R. L., Taylor, S. E., & Seeman, T. E. (2002) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.128.2.330 · Cited by 2,884
Diener, E., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2002) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/1467-9280.00415 · Cited by 2,508
Happiness Is a Stochastic Phenomenon
Lykken, D., & Tellegen, A. (1996) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.1996.tb00355.x · Cited by 1,719
If you can't join them, beat them: Effects of social exclusion on aggressive behavior.
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Reexamining adaptation and the set point model of happiness: Reactions to changes in marital status.
Lucas, R. E., Clark, A. E., Georgellis, Y., & Diener, E. (2003) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.84.3.527 · Cited by 1,357
Farmers and Their Languages: The First Expansions
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Cited by
Williams, K. D. (2009) · Advances in Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1016/s0065-2601(08)00406-1 · Cited by 908
Partnering Across the Life Course: Sex, Relationships, and Mate Selection
Sassler, S. (2010) · Journal of Marriage and Family · doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2010.00718.x · Cited by 302
Are All the Good Men Married? Uncovering the Sources of the Marital Wage Premium
Antonovics, K., & Town, R. (2004) · American Economic Review · doi:10.1257/0002828041301876 · Cited by 295
The Unrecognized Stereotyping and Discrimination Against Singles
DePaulo, B. M., & Morris, W. L. (2006) · Current Directions in Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2006.00446.x · Cited by 243
Marital Status and Social Well-Being: Are the Married Always Better Off?
Shapiro, A., & Keyes, C. L. M. (2008) · Social Indicators Research · doi:10.1007/s11205-007-9194-3 · Cited by 223
Metadata
- Authors
- DePaulo, B. M., & Morris, W. L.
- Venue
- Psychological Inquiry
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2005-07
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 2-3
- Pages
- 57-83
- ISSN
- 1047-840X (ISSN-L)
- 1532-7965
- OpenAlex
- W1992776160
- Cited by
- 412
- References
- 17
- FWCI
- 11.29
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
