Divorce more likely for couples with dissimilar drinking habits

As it turns out, it's not couples who play together that stay together. It's the ones that sip together, at least according to a new study from the University of Buffalo.

In the decade-long study, researchers observed newly married couples for upwards of nine years in order to analyze their drinking habits' effects on their marriages. The results were surprising, showing that couples with different drinking habits divorced 50 percent of the time. Co-boozing couples, though, showed just a 30 percent divorce rate.

What's more, it doesn't seem that two heavy drinkers are any more likely to split up than teetotaling married couples. So don't put that bottle down just yet—provided, of course, that your spouse is holding one too.

The difference, it seems, comes down to the habits of the couples involved regarding their drinking, not necessarily the alcohol itself. That is to say, if a couple consumes alcohol unequally, it's likely that their social schedules and preferences won't match up. The result is a divorce rate 20 percent higher than couples who kick back beers together.

Failure to match up in drinking habits, researchers say, hints strongly at a lack of compatibility, which divorced couples cite as the second most common reason for their splits.

Which, of course, means one thing: you'll have what she's having. Marriage, after all, is about compromise.

But try telling that to your liver.

[Jezebel]