Research Suggests Polygamous Men Live Longer

Calopteryx writes "Want to live a little longer? Get a second wife. A study reported in New Scientist suggests that men from polygamous cultures outlive those from monogamous ones. After accounting for socioeconomic differences, men aged over 60 from 140 countries that practice polygamy to varying degrees lived on average 12% longer than men from 49 mostly monogamous nations."

Comments

Reminds me of a joke

[R2.0]

Q: Why do married men die sooner than their wives?
A: Because the want to.

Re:I would have thought the opposite

[Pierre Phaneuf]

You're talking about polygyny, not polygamy, although that's a common mistake.

Re:I think you ust hit the mail on the head

[jgarra23]

Malak Hifni Nassef, as quoted in A Very Short Introduction to Islam, in the chapter on women, pp96.

Isn't that a bit like Jeffrey Dahmer saying that his victims' deaths were "by agreement"? I'm sure those young girls who are murdered by the state because they were raped are submitting to this "by agreement".

Re:I would have thought the opposite

[falconwolf]

because polygamy "contributes" to violence - and I think it does

How so? Maybe you, like most people, make the mistake of thinking polygyny is polygamy. However unlike polygyny, where a man has more than one wife, in polygamy both men and women can have more than one spouse.

My claim is not really all that strong - I'm mostly just answering the fellow who asserted that polygamy is "beneficial for all those involved". I'm pretty convinced that it isn't.

Polygyny may not be beneficial to all but polygamy certainly can be.

Falcon