Widely reported study implying divorce more likely when wives fall ill gets axed
A study linking wives' illness to divorce risk was retracted due to a coding error. Corrected analysis shows only heart problems increase divorce risk. Authors acknowledged and corrected the mistake professionally.
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A study suggesting that the risk of divorce increases when wives fall ill, but not when men do, has been retracted due to a coding error that invalidated the original conclusions. The paper, titled “In Sickness and in Health? Physical Illness as a Risk Factor for Marital Dissolution in Later Life,” received widespread coverage in various news outlets. The error was discovered by colleagues who were trying to replicate the study's results. The corrected analysis showed that marriages are at an elevated risk of divorce only when wives develop heart problems, not other illnesses. The authors promptly acknowledged the mistake, reanalyzed the data, and submitted a corrected paper for publication. The retraction note states that the conclusions of the original paper should be considered invalid, and a corrected version will be published. The authors and the journal editor handled the situation professionally, emphasizing the importance of transparency and correcting errors in scientific research.
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10 commentsThis is p-hacking after-the-fact, right? Seems like the classic example: The broader hypothesis doesn’t hold, but if you look for ways to slice and dice the data you’re likely to find a (spurious?) correlation eventually.
I take issue with this framing. Starting with saying that when women get sick, risk of divorce elevates, immediately followed by saying this happens only in one type of sickness is still very misleading. The entire first sentence is misrepresenting the actual findings.
Me not ending the marriage sooner - this was reasonably questioned. Some of that was me being a guy.
The one divorce I can think of in my extended family came from the onset of heart problems. Properly speaking, it was the abortion she had that caused the divorce, not the fact that she would have died otherwise.
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