Do audiophiles have a high divorce rate?


Somebody told me yesterday that a study that looked at personality traits of people who got divorced found that people who were picky and difficult to satisfy were over-represented in the divorce population.

That got me thinking: picky and difficult to satisfy -- that doesn't sound like any of us, does it?

From your observations, do you think that audiophiles might have a higher divorce rate than the general population because of certain personality characteristics?

Just hoping my hypothesis is wrong.

Michael
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Wow Brad, you musta married young (you don't look that old!).

My wife & I are going on 20 yrs-the first for ea. of us, although we've been together for ~26 yrs.
When I first met my future wife she owned a Tandberg reel-to-reel tape recorder. It was love at first sight.
Then I discovered it was only mono.
Still together forty years later, and have only had to upgrade my components, not my spouse.
I'm in for one. Happily remarried to a wonderful woman and couldn't be happier. Of interest, her ex was an audiophile as well??? You should have seen her face the first time I brought up speakers when we were first dating!
Well, the US divorce rate is high, period, with estimates ranging from over 40% to over 60%. Split the difference, and you've got the oft quoted 50%. Interestingly, the modal (most typical) prediction of likelihood of divorce for both marrieds and singles seems to be around 0%, and the same for the once divorced! We're hopefully beasts, thankfully! (see Fowers, B. J., Lyons, E., Montel, K. H., and Shaked, N. 2001. “Positive Illusions About Marriage Among Married and Single Individuals.” Journal of Family Psychology 15: 95-109)

My guess is that we know very little about risk factors, save some pretty obvious ones, like extreme youth in a couple. In the particular case of audiophiles, obsessing on a (n often non-decor friendly) hobby might cause marital strain. On the other hand, audiophiles as a group may be more secure than average financially, which may in some instances be helpful. On the idea that there is an "audiophile personality," I'm a bit skeptical: seems a pretty diverse group on this site anyway, though I'd expect there are some trends having to do with age, gender, income, and race. In the end, I'm skeptical about the notion that "personality traits" have as much to do with the course of ourlives as people seem to think (I've gone on at length about this elsewhere: http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521608902

So all you guys can taske satisfaction in both your marriages and your hobby, without a shred of guilt! Congratulations on your successful unions!

jmd