Brad Wilcox argues that marriage, rather than educational attainment, work, money, frequent sex, or regular religious attendance, is the strongest predictor of happiness. The evidence he supplies overwhelmingly supports the notion that marriage is correlated to various aspects of life, including the level of violence in one’s neighborhood, the probability of a child’s future path leading to either prison or college, the condition of one’s retirement savings, and one’s mental well-being and overall health and happiness.

But will anyone get married because the social science says it is good for them?