Posted on 08/28/2007 7:26:47 PM PDT by blam
Men have evolved to choose young wives
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 29/08/2007
There is a 25 year age gap between Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas
Men have evolved to seek wives and girlfriends who are younger than they are to maximise their chances of reproducing, researchers have found.
Couples are most likely to have a greater number of children if the man is about six years older.
A team from Vienna University studied more than 11,600 Swedish men and women, aged 45-55, and their partners and found that relationships in which the man was six years older than the woman produced the most children - an average of 2.2.
Women placed more emphasis on resources and status - leading them typically to choose older men.
Martin Fieder, who led the team and whose research was published online by the Royal Society journal Biology Letters, said: "These findings may account for the phenomenon that men typically prefer and mate with women younger than themselves, whereas women usually desire and mate with men older than themselves.
"We conclude that the age preference for the partner increases individual fitness of both men and women and may thus be an evolutionarily acquired trait."
When the team examined those who had changed partners after the birth of their first child they found men ended up with women younger than their first choice, while women chose men who were younger than their first partner but still a little older than themselves.
Mr Fieder said: "These findings support the reported age preferences of ageing men for increasingly younger women as well as of women for a partner just a little older than themselves.
"We attribute the shift to a younger partner to a potential compensation for the fertility loss caused by the individuals' increasing age."
Thanks for the joke! A good one!
35 years.
Evolved, my foot. The very first woman made her own choice. Adam didn't tell her to eat the forbidden fruit, she chose to eat it on her own. Well, with a little persuasion from a snake, that is. But no one made her do it.
All I did was alter your 2nd line and add an old punchline to it.
I stand corrected. :-)
Michael Douglas never did deserve the future ex-Mrs. quark anyway...
There, fixed it.
Isn’t the age diff between Fred and Jeri the same as CZJ and Douglas?
This is not because of “evolution”.
It is the case among very rich men.
When was the last time you heard of some poor shnook marrying a beautiful woman 25+ years his junior?
She appeared to be fawning over him much to his delight.
I got a chance to ask him why such a scenario was taking place.
He told me “I’m not really this tall, I’m sitting on my wallet."
That size thing seems to evolve with age...
If he's lucky. :-)
LOL you dog you
The difference is she was supposed to be like a DAUGHTER to her!!!! ewwwwww
I mean HIM. like a daughter to him. still ewww though.
huh!
hubby is 6 yrs. older than me. 7 kids.
My first wife was Summa Cum Laude, and is a physican assistant. My second wife is a best selling author.
I don’t have a girlfriend at present. But when I marry, I pick ‘em pretty well.
I figure marriage is now mostly for gay people.
Oh come on now, do we really need a fancy study?
The (somewhat sarcastic) rejoinder is:
Men go after (look for and date) the prettiest woman they can get.
Women go after (accept dates, go out with, and marry) the wealthiest man they can attract.
See my (somewhat sarcastic) summary in nbr 78. compliments your findings, doesn’t it? 8<)
I guess I'm not too good in the attracting business because my husband has always claimed any woman interested in him for his money did not have high expectations.
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