According to a research by a social psychologist at the University of Alberta people who do not wear wedding rings are more neglectful of children compared to people who wear them. Further, Dr. Andrew Harrell states that young attractive people who do not wear wedding rings are the most neglectful child caretakers of all.
Dr.Harrell made his conclusions after leading an experiment in which 862 caretaker-children combinations were furtively observed in 14 supermarkets in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Caretaker neglect was measured according to how often the caretakers or their charges, estimated to be between one and seven years-old, wandered out of sight or were more than 10 feet away from each other—too far to prevent most accidents.
Harrell found that an average of 14 per cent of the caretakers, with or without wedding rings, lost sight of their charges at least once. However, young attractive female caretakers without rings lost sight of children 19 per cent of the time, and young attractive males lost sight 25 per cent of the time, a "statistically significant" jump, Harrell said.
"Past research suggests that the absence of a wedding ring in North American culture is indicative of a lack of emotional commitment to marriage," said Harrell. "Our research shows that it may also be an indicator of a lack of a commitment to one's family, including care of the children."
"It is our belief that an interest in establishing social, sexual or emotional ties outside of marriage may have the inadvertent consequence of diminishing attentiveness to children," Harrell added. "And it's not surprising that this distraction occurs even in a mundane setting like a supermarket, which is more than a place to purchase bananas and cereal. It can also be a place for social encounters and maybe even a romantic rendezvous."
A year ago, at the same conference, Harrell started a media storm when he suggested, based on similar research, that parents are more neglectful of unattractive children than they are of attractive children. This year, the findings from the study last year were replicated, with unattractive children being more neglected, particularly those older than three years of age.
Also this year, Harrell found that, among caretakers wearing wedding rings, the unattractive ones were more neglectful than the attractive ones.
"The unattractive parents could have health problems or psychological troubles that distract them from their parental duties," he said, adding that the observations are consistent with past evolutionary research on attractiveness and evolutionary fitness.