No gender differences in attraction to young partners: A study of 4500 blind dates.
Level 3 - non-randomized controlled study
Observational cross-sectional study analyzing dyadic interaction data from blind dates
PubMed 39869809 · doi:10.1073/pnas.2416984122
What was done
Authors conducted preregistered analyses on 9,084 dyadic reports from 6,262 individuals who went on blind dates through a matchmaking service seeking long-term partners. They examined the association between a partner's age and initial romantic desire, testing for gender differences, the role of age gaps relative to one's own age, self-reported upper-age limits, and restricting a subset to mixed-gender dates with women aged 40 and under.
What was found
Participants were slightly more attracted to younger partners on average, with no gender difference in this association (no exact numerical effect sizes or p-values were reported in the abstract). Results remained identical when analyzing age difference relative to one's own age and when restricting the analysis to mixed-gender dates with women aged 40 and under. Stated upper-age limits did not meaningfully alter attraction ratings whether partners fell above or below that threshold.
Why it matters
This study challenges the common assumption that population-level age gaps in mixed-gender couples reflect mirrored initial preferences where men seek younger partners and women seek older partners.
Limits
The abstract provides no effect sizes, test statistics, or confidence intervals. The sample is restricted to clients of a matchmaking service, which may limit generalizability, and evaluations capture only initial in-person attraction rather than subsequent relationship formation decisions or long-term partnership dynamics.