When It Comes To Sex, The Age Of A Man's Preferred Partner Is Exactly What You Thought It Would Be
TURKU, FINLAND (CBS) – The stereotypical image of the "sugar daddy," an older male paired with a beautiful young woman, might actually be more realistic than you think – at least if men had it their way.
Scientists in Finland say they gathered data from a population-based sample of more than 12,000 subjects. While women were typically more interested in men who were the same age or men who were somewhat older than them, men preferred women in their mid-twenties -- regardless of their own age -- when it came to potential sexual partners.
In other words, an 80-year-old guy and a 20-year-old man would probably both have their eye on the same 25-ish-year-old woman.
Scientists say this is probably because women are their most fertile during that time period of their lives, so historically men who had sex with women in their mid-twenties would have more children.
Of course, wanting something and actually getting it are two entirely different things, and in the real world, scientists say the age of a man's fantasy sexual partner and the ages of the women he actually reported sleeping with didn't match up. In fact, "sexual activity more closely mimics women's than men's sexual interest," the researchers conclude. Score for the ladies!
The study is published in the journal Evolutionary and Human Behavior and funded by the Academy of Finland.
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