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Want to know the secret to living longer, staying healthier, earning more money, and having great sex? Get married and stay that way.

Want to be labeled a Neanderthal at your next dinner party with the "enlightened" set? Suggest just that.

And, for good measure, tell them that sticking with a bad marriage generally is better for both partners than divorcing. As you're leaving to crawl back to your cave, leave a parting gift on the cocktail table: a copy of The Case for Marriage: Why Married People are Happier, Healthier, and Better Off Financially by Linda J. Waite and Maggie Gallagher (Doubleday).

You probably already know much of what this book says. (Hmmm. Marriage good, divorce bad . …) But you may not know why it's true. And that's why the book has sent shock waves through the prevailing wisdom: It gives scientific teeth to traditional arguments for marriage. If you are happily married, it may give you insights into helping troubled friends and relatives avoid divorce.

Waite, a sociology professor at the prestigious University of Chicago—not Cro-Magnon Community College and Bait Shop—says she wouldn't have written the book if she didn't think she had an extremely strong scientific case. Even so, she knew some critics would dismiss it quickly. "A lot of people have a political agenda," she says. "They've already made up their minds. And all they want to hear is stuff that agrees with it."

She concedes that the book's polarizing message has helped its sales: "The conservative community wants to hear this message, but the liberal and the feminist community doesn't." In fact, Harvard University Press—originally scheduled to publish the book—backed out at the eleventh hour for dubious, undisclosed reasons. Here's an educated guess, based on some of the early reviews: Feminists on the cultural left don't like the idea that marriage figures heavily into how happy men and women are.

What's so provocative about Waite and Gallagher's research? Try these findings:

• Unmarried people are far more likely to die young—especially men, who on average engage in riskier behavior when single than when married. Statistically, divorce is as dangerous to a man's health as starting to smoke a pack of cigarettes a day. Nine of ten married men will live to be at least sixty-five, while only six of ten single men will. Nine of ten wives make it to sixty-five, but only eight of ten single or divorced women will.

• Married people have more money, and their money goes further. If you think about it, two can live almost as cheaply as one. Cohabiting doesn't offer nearly as many financial benefits as marriage, because married couples make long-term plans and decisions. The secret is an added ingredient: commitment.

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