How does marriage affect length of life? Analysis of a French historical dataset from an evolutionary perspective

Abstract

There are broadly two explanations for why human longevity appears to be extended by marriage. First, there is the social explanation, whereby the companionship, division of labour and the economic support that marriage offers is thought to extend life. Second, there is a selective explanation, whereby those individuals with high potential longevity are more attractive to the opposite sex and therefore more likely to get married. Here we analyse the “TRA” dataset from 19th century France, using an evolutionary approach to address the question of why marriage is linked to longevity, focussing particularly on sex differences. The dataset is based on death and marriage records from all of France between 1798 and 1901 and includes information on age at death, marriage and wealth for individuals whose surnames began with the letters TRA. We find that marriage is positively associated with longevity, particularly for men. In part, this is related to the higher rate of deaths for single males during marriageable age, as compared to a higher rate of deaths for females during marriage. There is a positive association between wealth (at death) and longevity for individuals who were single or married at death, with a stronger effect for singles. Analysis of the effect of spousal age gap on duration of survival after first marriage indicates that men who were married to younger women lived longer, whereas the longevity of women was not associated with the spousal age gap. We put forward an evolutionary perspective on marriage and longevity, hypothesizing that there is an important role for sexual selection in the association between marriage and longevity, with women selecting on characteristics associated with longevity, whilst men select on characteristics associated with reproductive potential.