Kenrick Keefe:Age preferences in mates resources as social status that females value in a mate (Buss 1989;Kenrick et al.1990;Sadalla et al.1987).He Oldes1 prelerred loses physical resources in the form of health and virility, ●Youngest preferred however,and his economic position may also begin to 20- drop as he ages (e.g.,Jencks 1979).Older males decrease their rate of copulation,and a lowered rate ofcopulation is in turn related to lessened probability of insemination (James 1974).As we noted above,however,testosterone and sperm counts in older males remain adequate for fertilization. Leonard(1989)discusses a factor that would incline females against choosing males who are much older than they are: Females...should show a preference for males who have achieved full maturity and high rank,which will 3040 0 60 typically mean older males,but perhaps males still MALE'SAGE FEMALE'S AGE young enough to retain effectiveness as providers until Figure 1. Age differences preferred in mate advertisements, the females'last reproductive efforts have reached plotted as minimum and maximum differences from advertiser's adulthood.If one assumes (conservatively)that a age female marries at age 20 and can expect to bear her last child no later than age 40,and that that child will require some degree of parental care until age 20,then maximum desired age for a partner.When these data were broken down by the advertiser's gender and decade if pair bonds are long-lasting,she should prefer a male of age,they yielded the pattern shown in Figure 1. who is currently a good provider and likely to remain so for 40 years.This would mean a male older than she is, As can be seen in the figure,female specifications but not much more than 10 years older (p.26). remained fairly constant throughout the age range. Leonard's reasoning could be extended to older Females were interested in partners who,on average, females choosing a mate.Compared with a 20-year-old,a ranged from 0 to 5 years younger,and from 8 to 11 years 30-year-old female would have 10 fewer years of expected older than themselves.Males,on the other hand, remaining parental care,and could "afford"to marry a changed their preferences in a systematic fashion as their slightly older man,with fewer remaining productive own age increased.Males in their 20s were equally years,but more present resources. attracted to women above and below their own age, In summary,males are hypothesized to begin with a specifying partners ranging,on average,from 5 years preference for females around their own age,but,as they younger to 5 years older.As males got older,however, grow older,to develop a preference for women who, their preferences increasingly diverged from those of although not absolutely younger,are progressively females in the same age group.Among males in their 50s younger than themselves.We hypothesize that females and 60s,the maximum acceptable age was several years will begin with a preference for older males,and com- below their own age,and the minimum specified was pared to males,show less variation in that preference almost a generation discrepant from their own age.Analy- over their lifespan.This gender and age-differentiated ses of variance indicated a significant sex x decade interac- prediction was tested in six studies. tion for both minimum (F,4,190 =3.81,p<.01),and maximum age differences (F,4,190 =2.97,p <.02) Analyzed separately by sex,male advertisers showed 3.Study 1:Age preferences in mate significant decade changes for both minimum (F,4,126= 18.56,p<.001)and maximum preferences (F,4,126= advertisements 13.96,p <.001).There was a significant,but smaller, Several social psychologists have looked to classified decade difference for female advertisers'minimum pref- newspaper advertisements as an unobtrusive measure of erences (F,4,63 =4.34,p <.01).The variations in economic exchange in the mating process(e.g.,Harrison females'maximum preferences were not significant(F,4, Saeed 1977)."Lonely hearts"advertisements allow for 63=1.05,p>.39). the nonreactive naturalistic examination of mating prefer- When age preferences from mating advertisements are ences,and social psychologists have regarded them as examined more carefully,they yield results that were not particularly well suited for examining what are usually predicted by social economic models.If there is a"norm" tacit economic exchange considerations.Because earlier for men to prefer younger women it should show up most researchers considered only the general "norm"that markedly in younger men,who tend to be more con- females mate with older males and found support for that cerned with behaving in a stereotypically sex-typed man- expectation,they did not further partition the preference ner.A number of studies have found that men become data.A test of the present hypothesis calls not only for less concerned with gender-specific norms as they age separating male and female advertisers,but also for (e.g.,Deutsch et al.1986).The interesting feature of dividing them by the advertiser's age. younger men's preferences,however,is that they ex- We analyzed a sample of 218 personal advertisements tended equally above and below their own ages.Thus, from three issues of a "singles"newspaper(the Arizona these data provide no evidence that a preference for Solo).We used only advertisements that specified the age younger women is a consistent feature of the normatively of the advertiser,and that indicated a minimum and/or defined role for males. The results do fit well with an evolutionary model.The 80 BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES(1992)15:1