The Oscar Curse: Best Actress Winners Have Higher Rate of Divorce

Ever heard of the Oscar curse? Researchers found that recipients of the AcademyAward for Best Actress have a higher risk of divorce than nominees who don't win.

Tiziana Casciaro, an assistant professor of organizational behavior at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, Colleen Stuart, a post-doctoral fellow at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, andSue Moon, a PhD student at the Rotman School, studied 751 nominees in the bestactor and best actress categories of the Academy Awards between 1936 and 2010.

The trio's results indicate that there's a 63 percent chance the marriage of the Best Actress Oscar-winner will end sooner than the losing nominees' marriages.

"Research has shown that, in the general population, gender differences havehistorically given roles with greater power and status to men and roles withlesser status and power to women," Casciaro said in a release by the Rotman school. "Studies have demonstrated thatbreaching this social norm within a marriage -- for example, when a wife earnsmore than her husband -- can strain the relationship."

The study suggests that although the winners are high-profile actresses, they arelike ordinary women as they also suffer from the confinements of socialconventions.

"It appears that even the marriages of Hollywood actresses at the top of theircareers are not immune to the consequences of violating social norms that affectthe wider population," said Stuart. "Our results suggest that the sudden successreduces the longevity of their marriages."

Among the actresses who have gone through divorces after receiving an AcademyAward are Hilary Swank, Halle Berry, Kate Winslet, Sandra Bullock, Joan Crawfordand Bette Davis.