Good news for all the single fellas out there: There might be a very valid reason for skimping on your sweetie's engagement ring.
According to a new study (comprehensively titled "'A Diamond is Forever' and Other Fairytales: The Relationship between Wedding Expenses and Marriage Duration”), people who spend a lot of money on their engagement rings are more likely to end up divorcing their spouse
Emory University economics researchers Andrew M. Francis and Hugo M. Mialon surveyed 3,000 "ever-married" participants (people who had been married at least once, and perhaps currently), and concluded that men who shelled out between $2,000 and $4,000 for an engagement ring were 1.3 times more likely to divorce than those who spent less. It's important to note, however, that men who spent less than $500 were also more likely to divorce sometime down the road.
The same study also analyzed the correlation between the price of a couple's wedding and the likelihood of their divorce, and came to a similar conclusion. Specifically, the study found that couples who spent $20,000 (or more) on their wedding were 3.5 times more likely to end up divorced than couples who spent between $5,000 and $10,000. What's more, spending less than $1,000 on the wedding — though we don't know how that's possible — further decreased the chances of splitting up. "Our findings provide little evidence to support the validity of the wedding industry's general message that connects expensive weddings with positive marital outcomes," Francis and Mailon concluded in just about the least romantic sentence we've ever read, both contextually and stylistically.
Somewhat paradoxically, however, the authors found that having a large number of guests at the wedding was "positively associated with marriage duration," as were honeymoons (of any cost).
Taking all of this into consideration, one could argue that the key to a successful marriage — by our estimation — is spending a combined total of about $2,500 on an engagement ring and a wedding, inviting as many people as will fit into your reception hall (or highway underpass, should a reception hall prove too expensive), and leaving for a long honeymoon soon thereafter. Otherwise, divorce just might be in the cards
Now try convincing your sweeties of that, all you single fellas out there.
