Peter

Hm. My instinctive description was (A). But I when I read (B) I was disturbed to see that I'd assumed (A) and wondered why I did so, and wasn't very certain. I worried I'd instinctive identified with the "better off" people.

I don't think I can explain why I thought that, but (assuming having four wives is more common) possible reasons for answering B would include:

1. Because having no wife is prevalent (which objectively seems better than all the other reasons below).

But possible reasons for answering (A) would include:

1. Because having four wives is in many countries unheard of, so saying anyone at all having four wives is informative.
2. It conveys the total distribution better, because, logically, if many men have four wives, there must be many men with none, whereas if many men have no wives, there could be a number of reasons.
3. Because we're used to people massively exaggerating the prevalence of multiple spouses, so we know that when someone says "men have four wives" they likely mean "ever" not "always".

Can I ask what prompted the question?