Thesis
Preferences for younger individuals in facial-attractiveness judgments and online dating profiles
- Creator
- Rights statement
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 2026
- Thesis identifier
- T18119
- Person Identifier (Local)
- 202355226
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- Age plays an important role in mate preferences and mate selection. However, to date, age is a relatively neglected variable in mate preference research. Age preferences are frequently explained by evolutionary theories suggesting that youth signals reproductive potential, although this hypothesis has not received broad empirical support. Consequently, the current work attempted to investigate the underlying factors behind age preferences, transitioning from facial-attractiveness evaluation paradigms to online dating data analyses. The results found no evidence that age preferences were influenced by the imprinting effect of parental age at participant’s birth (Chapter 2), nor that the desire to have children strengthened preferences for younger faces (Chapter 3). Furthermore, by using an automated facial-landmark placement technique to derive face shapes from an age-diverse face database, the results also demonstrated that younger adult women did not possess significantly more feminine face shapes compared to older women, challenging the assumption that facial femininity is preferred because it serves as a cue for youth and, consequently, female reproductive potential (Chapter 4). Although the facial evaluation studies challenged evolutionary hypotheses of age preferences, the subsequent online dating data analyses (Chapter 5) revealed that men who desired children showed stronger preferences for younger partners than did men who did not desire children and the strength of this effect increased with participant age, whereas women's preferences remained stable. Together, these findings expose the profound complexity of human mating psychology. The discrepancies between findings from facial-attractiveness evaluation paradigms and online dating data analyses may highlight methodological limitations in the field. To build an accurate understanding of romantic attraction, future research should move beyond isolated visual stimuli and study participants across broad age ranges in realistic dating environments, capturing the dynamic and mutual nature of actual mate selection.
- Advisor / supervisor
- Jones, Benedict C.
- Shiramizu, Victor
- Resource Type
- DOI
Relations
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PDF of Thesis T18119 | 2026-09-03 | Public | Download |