Men and women alike are drawn to younger partners, whether or not they realize it. The conclusion came from a University of California, Davis, study of 4,500 blind dates of people seeking a long-term partner.

“After a blind date, participants were slightly more attracted to younger partners, and this trend was equally true for men and women,” said Paul Eastwick, UC Davis professor of psychology and lead author on the study, published Jan. 27 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

“This preference for youth among women will be shocking to many people, because in mixed-gender couples, men tend to be older than women. Plus, women generally say they prefer older partners,” Eastwick said. “But women’s preferences on the dates themselves revealed something else entirely.”

This study sampled a diverse age range, with daters ranging from 22 to 85. It is the first research to examine the link between a partner’s age and romantic desire in a blind date setting among people seeking long-term partners.

6,000 people using a matchmaking service

Researchers looked at data on more than 6,000 participants who were set up on blind dates by the matchmaking company Tawkify. The daters were about half men and half women, and most were set up on mixed-sex dates. More than half reported being white, with the rest making up multiple races and ethnicities. 

In answering survey questions, most reported having an upper age limit as to dates they preferred, but the self-reported age limit had no bearing on the daters’ actual choices. 

The researchers also looked at whether women of higher income might be inclined to choose a younger partner. Some of the women in the study were fairly wealthy.  

However, there was very little evidence that income — either their dates’ or their own —influenced these women’s (slight) preference for youth, researchers said. 

The study did not look at whether romantic attraction on a first date led to longer-term relationships.

 “These findings suggest that men and women find youth (a little) more appealing in initial attraction setting — whether they know it or not,” Eastwick said.