An American study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveals that both men and women are generally attracted to partners younger than themselves.
Researchers at the University of California, Davis, came to this conclusion by studying the data of over 6,000 singles, aged 22 to 85, who agreed to go on “blind dates.”
The panel, nearly equally composed of men and women, mainly comprised participants dating people of the opposite sex. Prior to the blind dates, each participant completed a questionnaire specifying their criteria, particularly with regard to age.
The verdict? Singles show a slight preference for partners younger than themselves.
“After a blind date, participants were slightly more attracted to younger partners, and this trend was equally true for men and women,” explains Paul Eastwick, professor of psychology at UC Davis and lead author of the study, in a press release.
This inclination towards youth somewhat flies in the face of stereotypes in the case of women.
In heterosexual couples, it is commonly accepted that men are often older than their partners. Women, on the other hand, often say they prefer older partners, perceived as more stable or mature.
“But women’s preferences on the dates themselves revealed something else entirely,” says Paul Eastwick.
Youth above all else?
Researchers set out to find out whether wealthy women prefer young men, in line with the “cougar” stereotype. Their results showed that age remains the dominant criterion, far beyond financial considerations.
Even in the case of women who earn a good living, this preference for younger partners seems to have more to do with attraction than with any logic of status or wealth.
However, one question remains unanswered: does this youthful inclination lead to long-lasting, committed relationships?
While the study doesn’t directly address this point, Paul Eastwick suggests that this age bias may reflect unconscious mechanisms.
“These findings suggest that men and women find youth (a little) more appealing in the initial attraction setting – whether they know it or not,” he explains.
The role that age plays in choice of mate has been the subject of numerous studies. They highlight a structural asymmetry specific to heterosexual couples.
In most of these unions, the man is older than the woman. This almost universal norm transcends cultures and eras. What changes is the extent of the age gap, which varies according to historical and geographical contexts.
For many sociologists, this trend reflects a widely shared cultural rule whereby men are more attracted to “young women”, while women prefer older partners.
This study invites us to look beyond clichés and rethink the dynamics of love attractions.
In a context marked by an unprecedented ageing of the population in numerous countries, a fundamental question emerges. Can love continue to bloom as the years go by? It would seem that the impulses of the heart are resistant to the passage of time.