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Cougar phenomenon a myth: A study in United Kingdom.
– Reported, December 09, 2012
A research is published in the journal Evolution and Human Behaviour. It is based on a major study of profiles listed on lonely hearts’ websites, including thousands of singles in Australia, has dispelled the “cougar” phenomenon as a myth.
There was no significant group of older women seeking younger men for long-term relationships – the so-called cougar or toy boy effect – found during the analysis of 22,400 profiles from dating websites.
Dr Michael Dunn, from the Department of Psychology at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, United Kingdom. said single women were almost universally found to be looking for men around their own age or older. “Yes I do believe the cougar phenomenon is a myth and, yes, it is a media construct,” Dr Dunn told AAP in an email on Wednesday.
Dr Dunn’s researchers logged on to some of the world’s most popular dating websites to glean data from the profiles of singles based in 14 countries, including Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan and the UK. All of the singles were 20 to 50 years old, and researchers noted their age as well as the preferred age range of their perfect match.
It showed the rising media portrayal of “sex-role reversal lifestyles” – such as older women seeking younger men – was “in no way reflective of the desires evident in the general population”. Instead, there was a “consistent cross-cultural preference by women for at least same-age or significantly older men”. There was also “copious evidence revealing a distinctive preference by men for youthful women” – though there were exceptions and particularly in Australia.
Dr Dunn said Australian men preferred younger women but they tended to nominate a less dramatic age gap, and they were the least likely of those studied to rule out dating older women.” Australian males are still showing a predilection to younger females but not as young asmales in other countries sampled,” he said.
“If we look at maximum age preferences, then Australian men show a willingness to consider females marginally older than other countries – especially at age 50 – but even here this preference is for women only one or two years their senior. “When it comes to the gender that desires a dramatically younger partner then, Dr Dunn said, men win hands down. “Not once across all ages and countries … did females show a preference for males significantly younger than male preferences for females,” he said.
Dr Dunn did note the dating websites were geared towards those seeking long-term relationships, and a trend of older women seeking younger men for casual sex could not yet be ruled out.
Credits: http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/
