Age preferences in mates reflect sex differences in human reproductive strategies

Abstract

The finding that women are attracted to men older than themselves whereas men are attracted to relatively younger women has been explained by social psychologists in terms of economic exchange rooted in traditional sex-role norms. An alternative evolutionary model suggests that males and females follow different reproductive strategies, and predicts a more complex relationship between gender and age preferences. In particular, males' preferences for relatively younger females should be minimal during early mating years, but should become more pronounced as the male gets older. Young females are expected to prefer somewhat older males during their early years and to change less as they age. We briefly review relevant theory and present results of six studies testing this prediction. Study 1 finds support for this gender-differentiated prediction in age preferences expressed in personal advertisements. Study 2 supports the prediction with marriage statistics from two U.S. cities. Study 3 examines the cross-generational robustness of the phenomenon, and finds the same pattern in marriage statistics from 1923. Study 4 replicates Study 1 using matrimonial advertisements from two European countries, and from India. Study 5 finds a consistent pattern in marriages recorded from 1913 through 1939 on a small island in the Philippines. Study 6 reveals the same pattern in singles advertisements placed by financially successful American women and men. We consider the limitations of previous normative and evolutionary explanations of age preferences and discuss the advantages of expanding previous models to include the life history perspective.

Mate preferences among Hadza hunter-gatherers

“…Given that female fecundity begins to decline after age 25 (Wood 1994) and ceases at menopause, it is not surprising that some men also mentioned youth whereas no woman did. My impression is that Hadza men, like men in many societies (Kenrick and Keefe 1992;Perusse 1994), seem to prefer women younger than the age of maximum fecundity. When long-term bonds are formed, it pays men to acquire wives who still have most of their reproductive years ahead of them.…”

Sex differences in cooperation: A meta-analytic review of social dilemmas.

“…Recent theoretical progress on understanding sex differences has been made primarily through both sociocultural and evolutionary psychology theories. Each of these major perspectives has guided research on sex differences in many areas, including helping behavior (Eagly, 2009;Eagly & Crowley, 1986), aggression (Archer, 2004(Archer, , 2009Eagly & Steffen, 1986), leadership styles (Eagly & Johnson, 1990), mate preferences (Kenrick & Keefe, 1992), and sexual strategies (Buss & Schmidt, 1993). Yet, surprisingly little research on sex differences in cooperation has been guided by either of these theoretical perspectives (for exceptions, see Geary, Byrd-Craven, Haord, Vigil, & Numtee, 2003;Sell & Kuipers, 2009;Simpson & Van Vugt, 2009), and, to our knowledge, no research has systematically compared these perspectives.…”

Sexually Selective Cognition: Beauty Captures the Mind of the Beholder.

“…Characteristics such as health and fertility, which are related to perceptions of female attractiveness, may signal a woman's reproductive value. From an evolutionary perspective, men have an evolved preference for healthy, fertile mates because such a preference would have increased the likelihood that a male ancestor would have fathered healthy offspring and, in turn, successfully passed his genes on to subsequent generations (e.g., Buss & Schmitt, 1993;Kenrick & Keefe, 1992;Singh, 1993).…”