The psychological impact and physical health risk of a lack of intimate social connection is equivalent to smoking a pack and a half of cigarettes per day.
"The lack of intimate connection is not only bad for us psychologically, but I think it was Vivek Murthy who quoted is as bad as smoking a pack and a half of cigarettes a day on your body." (said at 0:19:38)
The speaker references a widely cited public health comparison popularized by US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and based on meta-analytic work by Holt-Lunstad et al. (2010). However, the specific figure frequently cited by Murthy and public health authorities is smoking up to 15 cigarettes per day (approximately three-quarters of a pack, rather than a pack and a half). Furthermore, methodological reviews note that benchmarking observational effect sizes of social isolation against cigarette smoking is an illustrative comparison rather than an exact biological equivalent.
- supports: Social relationships and mortality risk: a meta-analytic review. (PLoS medicine 2010) · cited 7308x in the literature
"Across 148 studies (308,849 participants), the random effects weighted average effect size was OR = 1.50 (95% CI 1.42 to 1.59), indicating a 50% increased likelihood of survival for participants with stronger social relationships." (abstract, results, passage verified)
pubmedfull study (doi) - context: Benchmarking Social Isolation, Loneliness, and Smoking: Challenges and Opportunities for P… (American journal of epidemiology 2023) · cited 28x in the literature
"Over the past decade, the health implications of social isolation and loneliness garnered global attention due in part to a widely cited meta-analysis that benchmarked associations between cigarette smoking and mortality with associations between several social-relationship measures and mortality. Leaders in health systems, research, government, and popular media have since claimed that the harms of social isolation and loneliness are comparable to that of cigarette smoking." (abstract, passage verified)
pubmedfull study (doi)
Research shows a direct positive correlation between the amount of housework a husband performs and the size of his wife's paycheck.
"You know, there was research: there's a direct correlation between how much housework a man does and how big his wife's paycheck is. The bigger her paycheck, the more housework he does." (said at 1:44:31)
Sociological and economic research on marital bargaining and relative resources generally finds that as a wife's earnings or human capital increase, the division of domestic labor becomes more egalitarian, and husbands tend to perform a larger share of household labor. However, describing this as a simple, direct correlation overlooks key complexities documented in the literature: the effect is often non-linear, is heavily moderated by traditional versus egalitarian gender norms, and primarily reflects a decrease in the wife's housework hours (or outsourcing via market substitutes) rather than an equivalent increase in the husband's absolute hours. Furthermore, some prominent studies find a 'gender deviance neutralization' effect, where husbands who are outearned by their wives may actually perform less housework unless traditional gender norms are rejected.
- supports: Change in Spousal Human Capital and Housework: A Longitudinal Analysis (European Sociological Review 2016) · cited 54x in the literature
"Using the measure of human capital, we find change in wives’ own human capital to be the most important factor determining housework for both spouses, and no evidence for gender deviance neutralization. We conclude it is women’s resources that are the critical determining factor in bargaining over housework." (abstract, results, passage verified)
openalexfull study (doi) - contradicts: Gender Identity and Relative Income within Households (National Bureau of Economic Research 2013) · cited 58x in the literature
"Couples where the wife earns more than the husband are less satisfied with their marriage and are more likely to divorce. Finally, based on time use surveys, the gender gap in non-market work is larger if the wife earns more than the husband." (abstract, results, passage verified)
openalexfull study (doi) - context: What if She Earns More? Gender Norms, Income Inequality, and the Division of Housework (Journal of Family and Economic Issues 2023) · cited 30x in the literature
"We find that the female share of total household income is negatively related to women’s heavy involvement in housework... Women from less traditional households are more likely to share housework equally with their partners. Among couples with traditional gender attitudes, the female contribution to household income is not related to the division of housework." (abstract, results)
openalexfull study (doi)