Title: Age preferences in mates reflect sex differences in human reproductive strategies.

POPLINE Document Number: 074862

Author(s):

Kenrick DT
Keefe RC

Source citation:

BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES, 1992 Mar;15(1):75-91.

Abstract:

Social psychologists have held that when selecting mates women prefer older men and men prefer younger women. In a form of economic exchange based on conventional sex role norms, both men and women seek potential partners who are similar to themselves. Behavioral psychologists have proposed an evolutionary model to explain age preferences. The social exchange model does not explain what cross cultural research which is that men and women in other cultures differ in ways that are parallel to gender differences in US society. The evolutionary model submits that men and women pursue distinct reproductive strategies. It also theorizes a more complicated relationship between gender and age preferences than the social exchange model. 2 behavioral psychologists have conducted 6 studies to determine whether the evolutionary model holds true. The hypothesis states that, during the early years, men prefer women who are only somewhat younger than they are, but as they are, they prefer women who are considerably younger than they are. On the other hand, young women prefer men who are slightly older than they are and this preference does not change much with age. The psychologists examined age preferences in personal advertisements from newspapers in Arizona, West Germany, the Netherlands, and India and in singles advertisements by financially successful US women and men in the Washington, D.C. They found the results consistently fit well with the evolutionary model. They also studied marriage statistics from Seattle, Washington, and Phoenix, Arizona, which also supported the hypothesis. They conducted a cross-generational analysis using 1923 marriage statistics from Phoenix which indicated consistency across generations. A study of marriages that took place between 1913 and 1939 on the small island of Poro in the Philippines also supported the theory. Thus psychologists should expand previous models of age preferences to incorporate the life history position.

Keywords:

United States
Arizona
Washington
District of Columbia
Germany, Federal Republic Of
Netherlands
India
Philippines
Historical Review
Methodological Studies
Cross-Cultural Comparisons
Mate Selection
Marriage Age
Age Factors
Sex Factors
Promotion
Heterosexuals
Reproductive Behavior
Generations
Urban Population
High Income Population
Models, Theoretical
Gender Relations
Developed Countries
North America
Americas
Europe, Central
Europe
Europe, Western
Asia, Southern
Asia
Developing Countries
Asia, Southeastern
Comparative Studies
Studies
Research Methodology
Marriage
Nuptiality
Marriage Patterns
Population Characteristics
Demographic Factors
Population
Marketing
Economic Factors
Sex Behavior
Behavior
Fertility
Population Dynamics
Family Characteristics
Family and Household
Social Class
Socioeconomic Status
Socioeconomic Factors
Gender Issues