OkCupid data has been crunched to reveal some trends in both sexes when it comes to dating and what they find the most attractive.
The data – gathered from heterosexual users (39k females and 58k males) between the ages of 20 and 50 – revealed some shocking and expected results.
We can’t pretend that age doesn’t come into play when it comes to attractiveness. But if you’re a female over the age of 24, you may not want to read any further.
We’ll start with the ladies…
Many of us have had a thing for slightly older guys since high school. We see that 20-and-21-year-old women prefer 23-year-old guys; 22-year-old women like men who are 24, and so on until a woman hits a certain age where slightly younger men may be the most attractive. For example, 50-year-old women rate 46-year-old men as the most attractive. Fair enough.
In general, though, a woman wants a guy to be roughly as old as she is, according to the data. A turning point happens at the age of 30, when a women moves from preferring guys slightly older to slightly younger. By 40, a woman’s tastes appear to hit a wall. Meaning, a man reaches a peak in terms of attractiveness. According to the data, a man’s sexual appeal reaches a limit at 40.
This doesn’t apply to George Clooney, David Beckham, or Brad Pitt, obviously. I can’t say I agree with these OKCupid-using females – some of the most handsome men I know are over the age of 40 (subtle shoutout).
Now to the men:
The results of the men made a glaringly obvious statement – a woman’s at her best when she’s in her very early twenties. Across the board, the men agree on this. The four highest-rated female ages are 20, 21, 22, and 23 for every single age group of guys but one. What a 50-year-old man and a college kid find attractive is the same thing: younger is better. Period. According to the data, once a man hits 30, he has absolutely zero interest in women over the age of 35.
The data basically suggests that a woman is “over the hill” before she even finishes university. Yikes.
The study also revealed the most used words in the profiles of heterosexual men and women. It turns out, a lot of engineers are into online dating. Both “engineer’ and “engineering” were the second and third most male-oriented profile words. The most commonly used male word? Ladies. Makes sense (?).
Speaking of the ladies, there are plenty of “girly” and “sassy” OKCupid users, which took the first and second spot, respectively. Apparently, even if they are such things, unless they’re under the age of 24, they aren’t going to be seen as the most physically desirable by fellow OKCupid users.
I have to wonder how different the results would be on a more mature, serious, “higher-end” dating site like Match.com or eHarmony.
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