The Unrecognized Stereotyping and Discrimination Against Singles

“DePaulo and Morris (2006) have noted that the protective impact of marriage on happiness and health may have been exaggerated in existing research because of the preconceived notions and biases of researchers; specifically, they argue that although differences may have emerged in previous research,…”

“For example, possessing a group membership of being mentally ill or single leads to not only social avoidance (DePaulo & Morris, 2006), but also adversely affects employment and housing opportunities (Bordieri & Drehmer, 1986; DePaulo & Morris, 2006; Morris, Sinclair, & DePaulo, 2007; Page, 1995).”

“Indeed, DePaulo and colleagues (DePaulo, 2007; DePaulo & Morris, 2005, 2006; Morris et al., 2008) have argued compellingly that the common research approach of contrasting single status with coupled (or married) status is not set up to provide a fair comparison and arguably echoes societal…”

“Consistent with the notion that singles are stigmatized, recent research has demonstrated that singles are indeed the targets of negative stereotypes (e.g. Conley & Collins, 2002; DePaulo & Morris, 2005a, 2006; Hertel, Schütz, DePaulo, Morris, & Stucke, in press).”

“Singles are also described as being immature, self-centered, insecure, and unattractive (DePaulo & Morris, 2006; Morris & DePaulo, 2009).”

“Finally, according to other authors such as De Paulo [64], single people are as likely as people in a stable relationship to exhibit a secure attachment.”

“Romantic relationships are a particularly important social relationship (Day, Kay, Holmes, & Napier, 2011; DePaulo & Morris, 2006) that have increasingly been viewed as the primary social relationship through which one can fulfill belongingness needs (Finkel, Hui, Carswell, & Larson, 2014).”

“…al., 1994) to intangible benefits such as feelings of security and belonging, meeting normative expectations that one should be in a relationship (DePaulo & Morris, 2006), basking in the reflected glory of the partner’s accomplishments (Tesser, 1988), and a boost in self-esteem (Sanchez & Kwang,…”

“Many argue that being involved in romantic relationships is more socially acceptable than being single (Conley & Collins, 2002; DePaulo & Morris, 2006); thus, relationship contingency may underlie a tendency to derive self-worth from conforming to social and cultural norms.”

“For example, undergraduate students perceived single people to be “maladjusted,” whereas married people were more likely to be perceived as “happy” and “successful” (DePaulo & Morris, 2006).”

“In fact, DePaulo and Morris (2006) find that the heavy expectation placed by members of traditional family units causes people to turn inwards, expect undivided attention from one another, and thereby reducing other available resources from outer circles.”

“To be single is to seemingly be valueless; or worse, to be unattached is to be reckless, narcissistic, immature, and selfish (Cobb, 2007; DePaulo and Morris, 2006; Reynolds, 2008).”

“Here lower-educated women face a high economic price for singlehood, while higher-educated women mainly face a greater social price – remaining single will, in such a context, be regarded as deviant from the norm (DePaulo and Morris 2006).”

“…that just about everyone wants to marry, and just about everyone does, is such a pervasive assumption, and an assumption so resistant to argument and to evidence, that Wendy Morris and I have construed it as one of the tenets of an Ideology of Marriage and Family (DePaulo & Morris, 2005, 2006).”

“Because singlehood was not seen as a legitimate choice or identity, discrimination against singles, which is critical in understanding the causes of the aforementioned disadvantages, was left unnoticed and uncounted (DePaulo, 2014, DePaulo & Morris, 2006, Fisher & Sakaluk, 2020, Kislev, 2019).”

“DePaulo and colleagues (DePaulo & Morris, 2006; Morris, Sinclair, & DePaulo, 2007) showed that marital status (for example, being single) can be the basis of stereotypes and discrimination.”

“The loss of male attention is an undesirable prospect for most women given that women and girls are socialized to highly value their romantic relationships and single women face stigmatization (DePaulo and Morris 2006).”

“Stigmatizing and stereotyping older singles is called “singlism” (DePaulo & Morris, 2006).”

“…societies around the world have various negative connotations attached to those remaining single past the socially acceptable marriage age, such as being a leftover, being a parasite to their parents, being selfish, or having a homosexual orientation (DePaulo & Morris, 2016; Himawan et al., 2018a).”

“That is, they must recognise that they are being excluded because of their group membership (DePaulo & Morris, 2006; Gurin, 1985; Major, Quinton et al., 2002; Simon & Klandermans, 2001).”

“…literature is in stark contrast with studies in other fields, highlighting the enormous importance of examining the work-life experiences of single individuals and those married without children (e.g., Ashburn-Nardo 2017; Blackstone and Stewart 2012; DePaulo 2006; DePaulo and Morris 2006).”

“In one study, for example, 1,000 undergraduate students listed characteristics they associated with married and single individuals (DePaulo & Morris, 2006).”

“Another possibility is that those with greater FOBS may be more vulnerable to internalizing prejudicial societal messages about singles (DePaulo & Morris, 2006), which may make the goal of attracting a partner—any partner—more chronically salient.”

“Nevertheless, married men invest less resources in their social circles and, therefore, they are more vulnerable and have less economic and emotional resources of support in times of need (DePaulo & Morris, 2006; Kislev, 2018).”

“This kind of social phenomenon where single adults are stereotyped and stigmatised is called “singlism” (DePaulo & Morris 2006).”

“For example, there is stigma against single individuals (DePaulo & Morris, 2006), single parents (Lauster & Easterbrook, 2011), individuals who have abortions (Hanschmidt et al., 2016), involuntary and voluntary childfree individuals (Ashburn-Nardo, 2017), and stigma against those who are parents…”

“Singles and environmentalists were selected due to discussions about their indistinct stereotypes and atypical roles [8, 16].”

“For example, single adults are often perceived as irresponsible, immature, maladjusted, and risky (Conley & Collins, 2002; DePaulo & Morris, 2005, 2006; Morris et al., 2007).”

“© 2017 Taylor & Francis DePaulo and Morris (2006) have already coined the term “singlism,” to characterize the stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination that they suggest subjectify single people and promote ideas associated with familist ideology.”

“It is also believed to be linked to ‘‘singlism’’—the stereotyping and discrimination against adult singles (DePaulo & Morris, 2005, 2006).”

“—Terry Mark As reflected in the above quotation, romantic relationships are considered to be a particularly important social relationship (Day, Kay, Holmes, & Napier, 2011; DePaulo & Morris, 2006).”

“, online dating was stigmatized and users were perceived by others as socially incompetent, desperate, immature, and self-centered [25,26].”

“High demands noted in this group may be related to the potential unfair treatment of unmarried workers, such as giving them extra tasks and expecting them to be more available and ready to take night shifts, work overtime and on holidays than married workers [45].”

“…for pursuing nontraditional social strategies, such as individuals who are single or childless or who prefer reading a book to a night on the town (DePaulo & Morris, 2006; Johnson et al., 2009), and for individuals for whom traditional strategies are unavailable or inaccessible, such as those…”

“Only a small number of studies (e.g., Byrne, 2008; DePaulo & Morris, 2006; Macvarish, 2006) have specifically examined the way in which women construct their singlehood and how they are marginalized by society.”

“Singles may have something unique to add to relationship science, precisely because they tend to maintain more diverse social networks than partnered people do (DePaulo and Morris, 2006; Finkel et al., 2014).”

“One reason for this may be that whereas singles are negatively stereotyped and discriminated against (DePaulo & Morris, 2006), contemporary stereotypes about left-handers are mostly positive (Grimshaw & Wilson, 2012).”

“Since stereotyping of singles is said to be largely unrecognized (DePaulo & Morris, 2006; Morris et al., in press), there should not be a correlation between the total NSSP score and age because this is still an issue that most people are unaware of; thus younger people, believed to be more aware…”

“This is not only reflected in the pervasive stigmatizing of single adults ( singlism ) (DePaulo & Morris, 2005, 2006), but also manifests itself within the traditional sexual script, where sex is legitimized and sym-bolized by romantic love (DePaulo & Morris, 2005; Træen & Lewin, 2008).”

“Indeed, having a romantic relationship appears to afford sufficient cultural currency that people who do not have one are negatively perceived and discriminated against (DePaulo & Morris, 2006; Greitemeyer, 2009), which can undermine their well-being (Girme et al., 2022).”

“In addition, single people have been reported to negatively evaluate other singles as being more at risk and unstable (34).”

“For example, DePaulo and Morris (2005, 2006) have noted that there is a significant percentage of people who do not wish to be in a romantic relationship.”

“…individuals tend to be stigmatized, are often perceived as violating the social expectations of ‘ appropriate ’ behaviour (Byrne, 2008; Campbell, 2003; DePaulo, 2006; Moore & Radtke, 2015), and face strong social and cultural pressures to marry (Gui, 2020; Klinenberg, 2012; Yodovich & Lahad, 2017).”

“…this research found that neighborhoods with higher proportions of singles versus married individuals were more likely to report positive sentiments, which somewhat counters the existing scholarship, like DePaulo and Morris (2006) who reported that singles were less happy than married couples.”

“For instance, single individuals may experience pressure to find a partner (e.g., DePaulo & Morris, 2006; see also Frederick et al., 2022), which in turn may heighten concerns about how one appears to others.”

“Singlism is defined as negative attitudes towards single people (DePaulo & Morris, 2006).”

“Being romantically attached is idealized, whereas single men and women are stigmatized as lonely, unhappy, and unfulfilled (DePaulo & Morris, 2006).”

“Additionally, because singles experience poorer social support and greater discrimination (DePaulo & Morris, 2006; Girme et al., 2022), it may be that singles internalize negative aspects of singlehood differently than their partnered counterparts, which may explain differences on item 4.”

“For instance, social maturity, better adjustment, and less selfcenteredness are observed in previously or currently dating undergraduates than those who were currently single and always single (DePaulo and Morris, 2006).”

“It also would be meaningful to explore the responses to implicit stereotypes frequently used to depict single women or singles in general (e.g. insecure, and inflexible; DePaulo & Morris, 2006).”

“However, by adulthood, Westerners who have not established stability in areas of life such as romantic relationships face negative judgment (DePaulo & Morris, 2006).”

“Notes 1 Nuances in legal/bureaucratic definitions can be observed in different countries, depending on the official taxonomy of marital status that is applied (see for example the discussion in DePaulo and Morris (2006) regarding the USA).”

“For single people with no partner, there appears to be a ‘cultural lag’ (Byrne & Carr, 2005) and they are often negatively stereotyped as immature, insecure, self-centred, unhappy or lonely (DePaulo & Morris, 2006; Slonim et al., 2015; Stavrova & Fetchenhauer, 2015; Day, 2016).”

“The literature in social psychology offers several examples of solo or token individuals who have been singled out in the workplace by colleagues or superiors because of their undesirable qualities (e.g. see Kanter 1977; Yoder and Aniakudo 1997; Niemann and Dovidio 1998; DePaulo and Morris 2006).”