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Madonna and Demi
Moore may be fuelling talk of a growing trend for older women on the
prowl for younger men but a study has said the phenomenon of the
“cougar” is a myth, confined to the world of celebrities.

The study of online
dating, by the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (UWIC), issued
last week found men and women are still rather traditional when it
comes to searching for their ideal partner.

Women generally seek an older and, therefore hopefully, wealthier man, according to the UWIC study.

Men, on the other hand, desire a young and attractive female, and often prefer a much younger partner as they themselves age.

The findings,
published in the journal Evolution and Human Behaviour, disputes the
“cougar” phenomenon popularised in TV shows and movies like “Cougar
Town” starring Courteney Cox and “Sex and the City” of women aged over
40 seeking “cubs.” Psychologist Michael Dunn of UWIC’s Cardiff School
of Health Sciences led the study which involved analysing the age
preferences of 22,000 men and women using online dating sites across 14
countries and two religious groups.

“A critically
important consideration for advertisers on online dating sites appears
to be the age of a potential partner,” Mr Dunn said in a statement.

He said it was a
commonly held assumption that with the advent of female financial
independence, women were now free to target men of any age group, as
securing financial security from older, wealthier males was no longer a
priority.

“The transference
of female desire from relatively older men to relatively younger men,
it has been argued, is reflected by the growth of the toy boy
phenomenon,” he said.

“The results of our
research challenge these assumptions. Although there was some cultural
variation in extremes, the results showed clearly that women across all
age groups and cultures, targeted males either their own age or older.”
Mr Dunn said a strikingly different pattern of age preferences was
evident in men.

Younger men, aged 20 to 25, either targeted females their own age or marginally younger.

Consistent pattern
But as males aged, they clearly expressed a preference for women
increasingly younger than themselves, with this pattern also being
cross-culturally consistent.

“These findings are clearly supportive of evolutionary theory,” Mr Dunn added.

“A wide variety of
evidence has shown that women, when considering a potential long-term
partner, focus more than males on cues indicative of wealth and status
and these logically accumulate with age.

Males conversely
focus more intently on physical attractiveness cues and these are
clearly correlated with the years of maximum fertility.” A UWIC release
added: “Madonna and Demi Moore are said to be influencing a whole new
generation of ‘cougar’ women who see much younger men as their goal
when looking for a long-term partner.

“But this notion of the ‘toy-boy’ phenomenon is dispelled as a myth
which only exists in the world of celebrity rather than reflecting real
life.” The countries involved in the survey were Australia, Brazil,
Britain, Canada, China, Greece, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya,
Mexico, Russia, South Africa, and Ukraine.