The census researchers compared reports of opposite-sex spouses’ earnings in survey answers and tax filings from 2003 to 2013. The couples were between the ages of 25 and 54, and at least one partner worked for pay.

They found that the 23 percent of couples in which the woman earned more also differed in other ways. The women earned more than double the average earnings of women who did not outearn their husbands. They were also more likely to have college degrees, and to be black.

Age and geography did not make a difference — couples in which the woman earned more were as common in liberal cities as in the conservative South.

The results show how much social norms can influence the answers people give in surveys. “It raises rather metaphysical questions for all social scientists: What happens when the phenomenon you’re studying affects the data you use to study it?” Mr. Wolfers said. The Census Bureau said it was working to improve the quality of survey results on earnings by comparing them with other reported sources.

A large study by economists at the University of Chicago, using census data from 1970 to 2000, found that marriages in which the woman earned more were less likely to form in the first place, and more likely to end in divorce. Women who outearned their husbands were more likely to seek jobs beneath their potential, they found, and to do significantly more housework and child care than their husbands — perhaps to make their husbands feel less threatened.

“When the gender norm is violated, there is some compensating behavior to try to undo some of the utility loss experienced by the husband,” said Marianne Bertrand, an author of the study and an economist at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Certain gender attitudes, at least about women, seem to be slowly catching up with people’s behavior. Research has found that among more recent marriages, women with higher earnings are no longer more likely to divorce.

Yet expectations about men have been slower to change. When men are unemployed or underemployed, women are less likely to consider them marriage material, and more likely to want a divorce.