‘People prefer sex partners of same age range’

MOST people prefer to have sex with partners of the same age range and that includes men, finds a study that challenges the common assumption that men, regardless of their age, remain interested only in young women.

Men become interested in older women as they themselves age, said the study.

The finding, published in the journal Evolutionary Psychology, suggests that when it comes to sexual partners the difference between men and women with respect to their age preferences is smaller than believed.

Although earlier research indicated that even older men prefer young women, the study by Jan Antfolk at Abo Akademi University in Turku, Finland, suggests that this is only partly true.

The study was conducted in Finland and included 878 men and 1 789 women.

“Over the investigated age span, women reported a narrower age range than men and women tended to prefer slightly older men,” the study said.

“We also show that men’s age range widens as they get older. Although they continue to consider sex with young women, men also consider sex with women their own age or older,” the study said.

The research concluded that, contrary to earlier suggestions, men’s sexual activity therefore reflects also their own age range, and their potential interest in younger women is not probably converted into sexual activity.

Most sexual activity occurs between partners of about the same age, the study said.

Additionally, the research showed that homosexual and bisexual men and women differ little from their heterosexual counterparts.

The only exception from this is that homosexual men are more likely than bisexual and heterosexual men to have sex with partners younger than themselves. – IANS