Why do married people live longer than single people?

Let’s be specific about who actually benefits from marriage.

Married men tend to live longer than single men.

Single women tend to live longer than married women.

Quite frankly, I think this has to do with the culturally outmoded but still relevant social practice of women caring for men more than men care for women and men failing to care for themselves.*

I still call bullshit on this cultural narrative.

I know that marriage would negatively impact my quality of life and health … because I don’t want to be married.

I can imagine that anyone that doesn’t wish to be married feels the same way. I might live a little longer, but I’d be wishing for death throughout the whole damn thing.

So getting married because you might live a little longer is not a convincing argument for happily functional and content single people. It’s the exact opposite.

* Let’s also acknowledge that the studies that “prove” this don’t often take into account same-sex marriages/relationships.