‘Cougar’ phenomenon just a myth
August 18th, 2010 - 5:33 pm ICT by ANIMelbourne, Aug 18 (ANI): The so-called “cougar’ phenomenon-where old ladies date men a lot younger than them-has been declared a myth in a major study of profiles listed on lonely hearts’ websites.
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, 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,’ News.com.au quoted Dunn as saying.
“Who benefits from this perpetuated myth? … this is mostly speculative but a clear beneficiary would be the ‘cougar’ or ‘toy-boy’ dating agencies themselves,” he added.
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 United Kingdom.
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.
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.
When it comes to the gender that desires a dramatically younger partner then, men win hands down, said Dunn.
“Not once across all ages and countries … did females show a preference for males significantly younger than male preferences for females,’ he said.
The research is published in the journal Evolution and Human Behaviour. (ANI)
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