Surprising study finds both genders favor younger mates, challenging age-old beliefs
Women are assumed to prefer older men, and they often say so in surveys, but a new study says that this might not really the case.
It’s assumed that women are attracted to older men and older men prefer younger women. And the data on the age gaps in heterosexual relationships would seem to give credence to this idea with men being older than their female partners on average in all 130 countries analyzed in a Pew Research survey.
Professor Madeleine Fugere, author of ‘The Social Psychology of Attraction and Romantic Relationships’, told Grazia that in evolutionary terms, men are “ensuring that a prospective partner is fertile” while women take into account the resources an older man may have at their disposal and the stability that provides. However, a new study may have turned this idea on its head.
Women, just like men, prefer younger partners
A group of researchers led by Paul Eastwick, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis surveyed over 6,000 people who used a matchmaking service looking for a long-term partner. After they went on their blind date they were asked to fill out a questionnaire and, at least after that first encounter, both men and women expressed that they were more attracted to the younger of two dating partners at a similar rate.
Eastwick admits that the effect was “small” with respondents preferring the younger of two partners 55% of the time and said one wouldn’t likely notice it at first glance “but it makes a difference in the aggregate,” he told The Guardian. So how does he explain the age gap between heterosexual partners that currently exists across the world?
“Age difference is baked into the dating pool from the start”
One the one hand, while the women expressed a greater preference for the younger of two partners, that attraction may wear off after the first encounter when “the liabilities of men’s youth come to the fore.”
On the other it may come to men having the ability to exert their preference, especially in societies that have less gender equality. For example, in the US and Europe the age gap has been shrinking for decades but in places like sub-Saharan Africa, which has the largest gap, men tend to be in excess of eight years older than their wives.
Eastwick put forth another potential cause for men tending to be older than their female partners saying that it’s “baked into the dating pool from the start.” He put forth two explanations.
One, boys aren’t viable dating material until they are older due to the fact that they mature later than women. For their part, women may be taking themselves out of the pool not wanting to “be a nurse or a pursue,” says Eastwick.
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