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Study: Divorce May Be Contagious

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PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — If you have friends who are going through a divorce, researchers say you might be next!

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At least the folks at Brown University, Harvard University, and University California, San Diego seem to think so.

A study, "Breaking Up is Hard to Do, Unless Everyone Else is Doing it Too," found that divorce can happen in clusters.

Divorce contagious hand holding couple
Credit: CBS3

Researchers found that a person is 75 percent more likely to become divorced if a friend has divorced.

And that's not all. If a friend of a friend is divorced, a person's odds of getting a divorce increases 33 percent.

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The study also suggested that popular people are less likely to get divorced.

Children don't influence the likelihood of divorce, according to the study, but having more children could reduce the chances of getting divorced.

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