September 23, 2026
It’s not your imagination — dating has gotten way more combative lately
When daters lack experience and are primed to see the worst in each other, the very normal aspects of courtship — negotiating boundaries, establishing trust, navigating conflict — are seen as dealbreakers. “There’s a growing discomfort with the normal friction, that if you say or do the wrong thing, it’s cringe, it’s disqualifiable; there’s no Continue Reading →
September 16, 2026
‘Death of the Pastor’s Wife’ and the Horror of Spiritual Abuse
September 15, 2026
‘My Husband Has No Friends’
Maria, who lives in a suburb of San Francisco, tells me her husband of 22 years doesn’t go out anymore. She adds that he doesn’t try reaching out to his old friends. “He was on the couch when I left to run errands and play mahjong last Saturday,” she says. “I was gone for, like, Continue Reading →
Generation Uncoupled
Generation Uncoupled: America's New Gender Divide and the Crisis of Human Connection
Buy NowSurvey Reports
Daniel A. Cox
July 23, 2026
A Digital Divide in American Adolescence: Gender, Class, and the New Teenage Experience
If teenage years once represented a time of rebellion, teenagers’ lives today are marked less by pushing boundaries and more by building their own. Many teenage experiences are less common than they once were—dating, working a part-time job, and experimenting with drugs and alcohol are less common experiences. The 2026 American Teenagers Survey from the Continue Reading →
Daniel A. Cox, Jae Grace, Avery Shields
April 27, 2026
Strangers Next Door: The Decline of Neighborhood Socializing and the Class Divide in Belonging
Acknowledgment The American Enterprise Institute’s Survey Center on American Life is grateful to the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation for its generous support of this research. As Americans spend more of their time online, the neighborhood—once a primary physical location for real-world socialization—is playing less of a central role than ever before. Since Continue Reading →
In the News
October 23, 2026 WIRED
A Dating App Is Offering ‘Chivalry Mode’ and ‘Marriage Timeline’ to Get Gen Z Married
October 23, 2026 Vice
Why Some Divorced Men End Up Alone in Old Age, According to Science
October 23, 2026 Prof G Media
Preparing men for others
October 19, 2026 Commentary