Are older men more attractive than younger men?

(written by lawrence krubner, however indented passages are often quotes). You can contact lawrence at: lawrence@krubner.com, or follow me on Twitter.

[Originally published on a weblog called “What Is Liberalism?”]

This line has been bothering me for months:

beautiful young women and successful older men are at their peak of desirability to the opposite sex

That’s by Robin Hanson, writing over at Marginal Revolution.

Is it true? Or is “successful” being confused with “older”? To get a correct point of comparison, we need to imagine a successful younger man and a successful older man. And then we need to be precise about what we mean when we say “opposite sex”. Are older men attractive to 10 year old women, 20 year old women, 30 year old women, 40 year old women and 50 year old women all to the same degree? Did Hanson have a particular image of a woman in his mind when he thought about what might be attractive to womankind?

Let us imagine a variety of non-children women, ages 20 through 60. Let’s be clear that we will only be speaking of heterosexual women. Which would they prefer, a younger male millionaire, or an older male millionaire? Is there an obvious, single answer here?

Let’s narrow the frame a bit: imagine a 20 year old woman. She is asked on a date by a successful 30 year old male, and a successful 50 year old male. Is it obvious that she will choose the 50 year old male? Is it even likely? What if she is 30 instead of 20? Is it obvious that she would choose an older male over someone her own age?

Now let’s imagine a 50 year old woman who is asked on a date by a successful 30 year old male and a successful 50 year old male. Is it automatic that she will prefer the company of someone her own age, to someone much younger? Is “prefer the company” the same as what Hanson meant when he wrote “peak of desirability”? If he meant “ignites the passion” (instead of “prefers the company”) then is it at all clear that the 50 year old woman will find the 50 year old male more attractive than the 30 year old?

I assume we can all agree that women are diverse and find a great diversity of men to be attractive. I don’t think Hanson would disagree with that. When he suggests that older men are at the “peak of desirability” to the opposite sex, I assume he is talking about averages here – the average 50 year old male millionaire is more attractive to the average adult woman than the average 30 year old millionaire would be.

Is that true?