Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2016 June 24

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June 24

Relative attractiveness of various professions

I recently found myself listening to the song 1985, covered by Bowling for Soup, in which it is mentioned that the protagonist's husband is a Certified Public Accountant, and this is one of many aspects of her life which are portrayed as unsatisfactory. Exploring this topic further, it has occurred to me that, although I have seen many articles ranking various careers based on criteria such as earning potential and job security (this one, from the Wall Street Journal, for instance), I have never seen any ranking of jobs based on their attractiveness to potential romantic partners. Do there exist any studies which provide such rankings? In particular, I would be interested in seeing a study which rates the comparative attractiveness of accountants, actuaries, and mathematicians - and if such detailed data is available, whether there is any statistically significant difference in this regard between members of the Society of Actuaries and the Casualty Actuarial Society, between pure and applied mathematicians, and between professors of mathematics and mathematicians employed outside of academia. Ideally I would prefer to see an academic study which has been published in a peer-reviewed journal, but an article in a reputable newspaper or news magazine would also be of interest. In keeping with the reference desk guidelines, note that I am specifically asking for references to published studies, and not for the opinions of individual reference desk editors or bloggers. --47.55.246.41 (talk) 01:12, 24 June 2016 (UTC)

Are you referring to in a specific country? Because I'm fairly sure even the relative attractiveness of a CPA to a romantic partner in a country like the US is going to be different from how it would be in Bangladesh. Nil Einne (talk) 14:04, 24 June 2016 (UTC)

I was referring primarily to the United States and Canada. --131.202.126.31 (talk) 15:45, 24 June 2016 (UTC)

Here's one viewpoint:[1] ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 14:35, 24 June 2016 (UTC)

Academic studies of occupational Prestige themselves seem to go through cyclical prestige... I see many from the 1960s, some from 2010, some large blank periods. Anyway, here's a few scholarly refs on occupational prestige [2] [3] [4]. You can search for more on google scholar using phrases like /social prestige math/ or whatever, and you can ask at WP:REX if you can't otherwise get access to a paper. SemanticMantis (talk) 16:28, 24 June 2016 (UTC)

In the UK, Chartered accountancy is (was?) a stereotypically "boring" and nerdy occupation, much satirised by (among others) Monty Python, with a glorious apotheosis in the Accountancy Shanty. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 12:07, 25 June 2016 (UTC)

To a practical-minded woman, the attractiveness of a potential husband's profession would have a lot to do with the profession's potential to make him a good provider. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 20:59, 26 June 2016 (UTC)