Men and women are equally attracted to younger partners, even if they don't consciously realise it, new research has found.
A study from the University of California, Davis, found both sexes tend to slightly favour younger individuals when dating.
The study involved around 4,500 people participating in blind dates through a US dating site. The platform matches individuals based on shared interests and the desire for long-term relationships.
Lead author Professor Paul Eastwick explained: "After a blind date, participants were slightly more attracted to younger partners, and this trend was equally true for men and women."
This finding challenges common assumptions that men in established relationships are typically older than their female partners. Women also often express a preference for older partners.
However, Professor Eastwick noted, "women’s preferences on the dates themselves revealed something else entirely."
The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, highlights a disconnect between stated preferences and actual attraction in dating scenarios.
Age gap relationships have also been shown in popular culture. In Babygirl, Nicole Kidman plays a high-powered chief executive who has an affair with a much younger intern.
“A lot of times women are discarded at a certain period of their career as a sexual being. So, it was really beautiful to be seen in this way,” Kidman told The Hollywood Reporter.
“From the minute I read it, I was like, ‘Yeah, this is a voice I haven’t seen, this is a place that I haven’t been, I don’t think audiences have been.’ My character has reached a stage where she’s got all this power, but she’s not sure who she is, what she wants, what she desires, even though she seems to have it all. And I think that’s really relatable.”
The study looked at people of all ages, with daters ranging from 22 to 85, who were using the US-based matchmaking company Tawkify.
Around half of daters were men and half women, and most people were set up on mixed-sex dates.
The researchers also looked at whether women with higher incomes might be inclined to choose younger partners.
However, they found very little evidence that income – either their date’s or their own – influenced these women’s (slight) preference for youth, the researchers said.
The study did not look at whether romantic attraction on a first date led to longer-term relationships.
Prof Eastwick said his study showed that “men and women find youth a little more appealing in initial attraction setting – whether they know it or not.”
