IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/amsocr/v87y2022i2p237-274.html

Assessing the Deinstitutionalization of Marriage Thesis: An Experimental Test

Author

Listed:
  • Blaine G. Robbins
  • Aimée Dechter
  • Sabino Kornrich

Abstract

This article seeks to experimentally evaluate the thesis that marriage is deinstitutionalized in the United States. To do so, we map the character of the norm about whether different-sex couples ought to marry, and we identify the extent to which the norm is strong or weak along four dimensions: polarity , whether the norm is prescriptive, proscriptive, bipolar (both prescriptive and proscriptive), or nonexistent; conditionality , whether the norm holds under all circumstances; intensity , the degree to which individuals subscribe to the norm; and consensus , the extent to which individuals share the norm. Results of a factorial survey experiment administered to a disproportionate stratified random sample of U.S. adults ( N = 1,823) indicate that the norm to marry is weak: it is largely bipolar, conditional, and of low-to-moderate intensity, with disagreement over the norm as well as the circumstances demarcating the norm. While the norm to marry is different for men and women and for Black and White respondents, the amount of disagreement (or lack of consensus) within groups is comparable between groups. We find no significant differences across socioeconomic status (education, income, and occupational class). Overall, our findings support key claims of the deinstitutionalization of marriage thesis.

Suggested Citation

  • Blaine G. Robbins & Aimée Dechter & Sabino Kornrich, 2022. "Assessing the Deinstitutionalization of Marriage Thesis: An Experimental Test," American Sociological Review, , vol. 87(2), pages 237-274, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:amsocr:v:87:y:2022:i:2:p:237-274
    DOI: 10.1177/00031224221080960
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00031224221080960
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/00031224221080960?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christina M. Gibson-Davis & Elizabeth O. Ananat & Anna Gassman-Pines, 2016. "Midpregnancy Marriage and Divorce: Why the Death of Shotgun Marriage Has Been Greatly Exaggerated," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(6), pages 1693-1715, December.
    2. Jennifer Barber & Jennifer Yarger & Heather Gatny, 2015. "Black-White Differences in Attitudes Related to Pregnancy Among Young Women," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(3), pages 751-786, June.
    3. Karl-Dieter Opp, 2013. "Norms and rationality. Is moral behavior a form of rational action?," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 74(3), pages 383-409, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Isabell Stamm & Fabian Bernhard & Jan-Philipp Ahrens & Baris Istipliler, 2024. "Marriage: an institution you cannot disparage? Evidence on the marriage norms of entrepreneurs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 63(1), pages 501-521, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xile Yin & Siyu Chen & Dahui Li & Feng Zhang, 2021. "Social norms for fairness and board voting behavior: An experimental investigation," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 110-133, March.
    2. Elly Field, 2020. "Material Hardship and Contraceptive Use During the Transition to Adulthood," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(6), pages 2057-2084, December.
    3. Julia Leesch & Nicole Hiekel, 2026. "No Partner, No Children? Union Formation, Assortative Mating, and Educational Inequalities in Fertility in Germany," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 42(1), pages 1-24, December.
    4. Bridget Brew & Abigail Weitzman & Kelly Musick & Yasamin Kusunoki, 2020. "Young women's joint relationship, sex, and contraceptive trajectories: Evidence from the United States," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 42(34), pages 933-984.
    5. Thieme, Lutz & Winkelhake, Olaf, 2018. "Zur Wirkung moralischer Appelle als Nudging? Ergebnisse aus verhaltensökonomischen Experimenten," Working Papers of the European Institute for Socioeconomics 22, European Institute for Socioeconomics (EIS), Saarbrücken.
    6. Yin, Xile & Li, Jianbiao & Li, Dahui & Chen, Siyu, 2023. "When emotional responses conflict with self-interested impulses: A transcranial direct current stimulation study of cognitive control in cooperative norm compliance," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    7. Alfonso Palacio-Vera, 2025. "‘Rational choice theory’ and moral behavior: A reconsideration," Rationality and Society, , vol. 37(4), pages 513-536, November.
    8. Eileen Díaz McConnell & Michael Rodríguez-Muñiz, 2023. "Exploring Popular Sentiments of U.S. Ethnoracial Demographic Change: A Research Brief," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 42(6), pages 1-14, December.
    9. Anna Merklinger-Gruchala & Maria Kapiszewska, 2019. "The Effect of Prenatal Stress, Proxied by Marital and Paternity Status, on the Risk of Preterm Birth," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-19, January.
    10. Bailey, Martha J., 2022. "Economic opportunity begins with contraception: Comment on “Intergenerational Mobility Begins Before Birth” by Ananth Seshadri, Anson Zhou," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 21-23.
    11. Scott Barkowski & Joanne Song McLaughlin, 2022. "In Sickness and in Health: Interaction Effects of State and Federal Health Insurance Coverage Mandates on Marriage of Young Adults," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 57(2), pages 637-688.
    12. Yasamin Kusunoki & Jennifer S. Barber & Elizabeth J. Ela & Amelia Bucek, 2016. "Black-White Differences in Sex and Contraceptive Use Among Young Women," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(5), pages 1399-1428, October.
    13. Martha J. Bailey & Vanessa Wanner Lang & Alexa Prettyman & Iris Vrioni & Lea J. Bart & Daniel Eisenberg & Paula Fomby & Jennifer Barber & Vanessa Dalton, 2023. "How Costs Limit Contraceptive Use among Low-Income Women in the U.S.: A Randomized Control Trial," NBER Working Papers 31397, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Jennifer Barber & Heather Gatny, 2021. "The social context of retrospective-prospective changes in pregnancy desire during the transition to adulthood: The role of fathers and intimate relationships," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 44(38), pages 899-940.
    15. Florian Follert, 2023. "Learning from corporate governance: First conceptualization of a liability for political decision‐making," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 76(4), pages 809-826, November.
    16. Seshadri, Ananth & Zhou, Anson, 2022. "Intergenerational mobility begins before birth," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 1-20.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:amsocr:v:87:y:2022:i:2:p:237-274. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.