Women who win the lottery are twice more likely to seek divorce than men: study
What would you do if you won the lottery?
Depending on the amount, many lucky winners would say that they’d use their money to buy a new home or their dream car. They might even travel or invest in their future.
But how exactly does that kind of windfall affect marriages?
Sweden-based National Bureau of Economic Research released a study last year looking into how “large, positive wealth shocks” impact men and women, marriage, and fertility.
Researchers looked into its effects in a sample of Swedish lottery players 10 years after their win.
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They discovered that men are more likely to stay married after a sizeable lottery win of SEK$1 million (C$131,080). Their risk of divorce falls drastically by 40%. When it comes to how a lottery win affects fertility rates, men are also likely to have more children, regardless of whether or not they’re married.
As for unmarried men who win the lottery, their chances of getting married in the next five years increase by 30%.
But women who win the lottery choose a completely different path.
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According to researchers, female lottery winners in unhappy marriages are twice as likely to get a divorce in the short term.
“Intuitively, a lottery win may give a discontent wife economic opportunity to leave the marriage, while men use the prize money in a way that increases the gains from marriage,” states the study.