Old men chasing young women: A good thing

It turns out that older men chasing younger women contributes to human longevity and the survival of the species, according to new findings by researchers at Stanford and the University of California-Santa Barbara.

Evolutionary theory says that individuals should die of old age when their reproductive lives are complete, generally by age 55 in humans, according to demographer Cedric Puleston, a doctoral candidate in biological sciences at Stanford. But the fatherhood of a small number of older men is enough to postpone the date with death because natural selection fights life-shortening mutations until the species is finished reproducing.

“Rod Stewart and David Letterman having babies in their 50s and 60s provide no benefit for their personal survival, but the pattern [of reproducing at a later age] has an effect on the population as a whole,” Puleston said. “It’s advantageous to the species if these people stick around. By increasing the survival of men you have a spillover effect on women because men pass their genes to children of both sexes.”

“Why Men Matter: Mating Patterns Drive Evolution of Human Lifespan,” was published Aug. 29 in the online journal Public Library of Science ONE. Shripad Tuljapurkar, the Morrison Professor of Population Studies at Stanford; Puleston; and Michael Gurven, an assistant professor of anthropology at UCSB, co-authored the study in an effort to understand why humans don’t die when female reproduction ends.

Human ability to scale the so-called “wall of death”—surviving beyond the reproductive years—has been a center of scientific controversy for more than 50 years, Puleston said. “The central question is: Why should a species that stops reproducing by some age stick around afterward?” he said. “Evolutionary theory predicts that, over time, harmful mutations that decrease survival will arise in the population and will remain invisible to natural selection after reproduction ends.” However, in hunter-gatherer societies, which likely represent early human demographic conditions and mating patterns, one-third of people live beyond 55 years, past the reproductive lifespan for women. Furthermore, life expectancy in today’s industrialized countries is 75 to 85 years, with mortality increasing gradually, not abruptly, following female menopause.

Grandmother hypothesis

In 1966, William Hamilton, a British evolutionary biologist, worked out the mathematics describing the “wall of death.” Since then, the most popular explanation for why humans don’t die by age 55 has been termed the “grandmother hypothesis,” which suggests that women enhance the survival of their children and grandchildren by living long enough to care for them and “increasing the success of their genes,” Puleston said. However, Hamilton’s work has been difficult to express as a mathematical and genetic argument explaining why people live into old age.

Unlike previous research on human reproduction, this study—for the first time—includes data on males, a tweak that allowed the researchers to begin answering the “wall of death” question by matching it to human mortality patterns. According to Puleston, earlier studies looked only at women, because scientists can reproduce good datasets for humans entirely based on information related to female fertility and survival rates.

“Men’s fertility is contingent on women’s fertility—you have to figure out how they match up. We care about reproduction because that is a currency by which force of selection is counted. If we have not accounted for the entire pattern of reproduction, we may be missing something that’s important to evolution.”

Men and longevity

In the paper, the researchers analyzed “a general two-sex model to show that selection favors survival for as long as men reproduce.” The scientists presented a “range of data showing that males much older than 50 years have substantial realized fertility through matings with younger females, a pattern that was likely typical among early humans.” As a result, Puleston said, older male fertility helps to select against damaging cell mutations in humans who have passed the age of female menopause, consequently eliminating the “wall of death.”

“Our analysis shows that old-age male fertility allows evolution to breach Hamilton’s wall of death and predicts a gradual rise in mortality after the age of female menopause without relying on ‘grandmother’ effects or economic optimality,” the researchers say in the paper.

The scientists compiled longevity and fertility data from two hunter-gatherer groups, the Dobe !Kung of the Kalahari and the Ache of Paraguay, one of the most isolated populations in the world. They also looked at the forager-farmer Yanomamo of Brazil and Venezuela, and the Tsimane, an indigenous group in Bolivia. “They’re living a lifestyle that our ancestors lived and their fertility patterns are probably most consistent with our ancestors,” Puleston said about the four groups. The study also looked at several farming villages in Gambia and, for comparison, a group of modern Canadians.

In the less developed, traditional societies, males were as much as 5-to-15 years older than their female partners. In the United States and Europe, the age spread was about two years. “It’s a universal pattern that in typical marriages men are older than women,” Puleston said. “The age gaps vary by culture, but in every group we looked at men start [being reproductive] later. At the end of reproduction, male fertility rates taper off gradually, as opposed to the fairly sharp decline in female fertility by menopause.”

Despite small differences based on marriage traditions, all women and most men in the six groups stopped having children by their 50s, the researchers found. But some men, particularly high-status males, continued to reproduce into their 70s. The paper noted that the age gap is most pronounced in societies that favor polygyny, where a man takes several wives, and in gerontocracies, where older men monopolize access to reproductive women. The authors also cite genetic and anthropological evidence that early humans were probably polygynous as well.

Older male fertility also exists in societies supporting serial monogamy, because men are more likely to remarry than women. “For these reasons, we argue that realized male fertility was substantial at ages well past female menopause for much of human history and the result is reflected in the mortality patterns of modern populations,” the authors say. “We conclude that deleterious mutations acting after the age of female menopause are selected against … solely as a result of the matings between older males and younger females.”

According to Puleston, the “grandmother hypothesis” may be true, but the real pattern of male fertility extends beyond this explanation. “The key question is: Does the population have a greater growth rate if men are reproducing at a later age? The answer is ‘yes.’ The age of last reproduction gets pushed into the 60s and 70s if you add men to the analysis. Hamilton’s approach was right, but in a species where males and females have different reproductive patterns, you need a two-sex model. You can’t correctly estimate the force of selection if you leave men out of the picture. As a man myself, it’s gratifying to know that men do matter.”

Grants from the U.S. National Institute on Aging supported this study.


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1,805 thoughts on “Old men chasing young women: A good thing”

  1. if man in 60 feel love story with girl in 20 …we can say she loves him for his money… but..if she loves him true love from heart …he will feel 2 sweet feelings first the sweet feelings of love between man and woman… second he will feel that he is 25 in age while he is 60..so in sex he will be more excited because his lover with fresh body of age 20…but he will feel so jealous about her from other men…may be he will suspect that she can play with other men more strong in sex…but if you can do it.. i think to marry age 20 is better than age 50……

    • My wife is 28 yrs younger than I. Enough with all this speculation. I live it and love it. I am 49 look 36, when people speak with me they think I am 25. I have the body of a 30yr old, the energy of a 25 yr old and the mind of a 50 yr old.

      Sex nightly parties weekly. and all this without the money.
      Confidence my freind is the attractiion not the money.

  2. This would be a great site to visit.In this site you can share your comments and some suggestion to improve more in this site. Keep up the good work!

    • Funny how this comment comes up after all these…other inappropriate comments.
      “Keep up the good work!”

      I did enjoy the read though…interesting, since the age gap between the guy I love is a mere 8 years.

  3. no one young women will date older men unless there is some business but it woun’t be for long to be seen with older men. Becausse old men are useless. they don’t have confident on themselves and try to date young women. for what?

    YOunget women prefer younger women who can do better sex and having fun out side not just sitting home watching foot ball or base ball with alcohol on their hand. which are with big belly sitting in a sofa for ever.

    Money can’t change with the young women feel who she want. Old men are so old old. even if they have money the money will not help them, it maight help them for a while but not for long run.

    so older men foucus on your old women just like you. you alway scare for any thing you want because you don’t feel good and don’t have condident.

    so young women prefer younger women because there is many good reasons why they like younger guys. their look perfect their body inside their close perfect sex perfect every thing perfect. but older men they are old on the out side and inside under their cloths are old body. so who want that old body.

    there are millons reasons why younger man is better than old with big belly or with wrincle belly.

    young women and young men will have a good sex when they are reaaly both in love. but with older men you can’t be in love because there is many reasond why women can’t be in love with old man who doesn’t have confident on himself even if the old men pretend to be have a confident.

    younger women will never like older men to date unless there is a busness going on to be just freind.

    younger men are hot with is much which much with young women
    old men are not not not hot but sugi which much with old men just like them.

    • I have a flatter better body than 80% of the younger at my gym. Who ever you are, I would likely pass on you and you would wonder why I passed on you. Well I passed on you becasue your girl freind found my intellect and look along with my confidence more interesting than being with another young empty minded girl speaking of school, boys and clothes. She seeks a person who can stimulate beyond that below her waiste.

    • I actually like older man and I don’t give a damn about their money. I have a superior education, I’m an independent person and I don’t want anyone’s money. Youngs guys may have more sexual desire but if don’t know how to satisfy a women and if they’re selfish it’s better to not have sex at all. So I stick with middle age guys…thank you very much!
      I don’t like going to the disco and getting drunk so…I’ll stay at home in the arms of my MAN not a BOY. They have more feelings than young guys trust me.

      • Hello I was reading your post and I love it. I am a 27 year old goin on 28 n a month and my fiance is 45 and I wouldn’t have it any other way! He is amazing to me, he is my best friend, my cousin, my homeboy everything…. He always has my back jus as I have his. The sex is wonderful better than I had it with younger guys! He makes sure I’m satisfied before anything! He actually cares about my feelings! I cabt wait ti become his wife next year! He has a vasectomy wit two adult children, and I have a 4 year old son from a previous relationship but he treats my son as if he is his own! I loove this man with everything I have! I jus wanted to comment because your post reminded me of my relationship wit my boo! Thanks… U and urs have a blessed life together

    • My wife is 27yrs old and I am 42. When we first got to know each other we did not even know what we looked like or what the age we were to each other. We chatted for a long time and fell in love. When she sent me pictures it turned out she was a bomb shell,,,and even more lucky for me she was a virgin at the time. Finally my last (third) wife who truely loves me for dear life.. It’s just about how the women is raised and her culture.. Most women here in the states are all screwd up. If it’s for the money why is her income twice mine? If I am old and dirty and all of the above mentioned,,,why did she seek me? I asked her this in the beginning,,,she said “It’s because the guys my age only want to cheat,,play and make tears…So here I am helping this world again by spreading my great gene’s for one last time,,(two great kids by my first wife,,,and two more with my second) and with my sexy filipina maybe another two or three as “she” wishes…..

      • I love this post I am 28 wit a 45 year old fiance and I love him to death he is respectful, loving and everuthing I can ask for n a man and I will never leave him! I hope you two have a wonderful amd blessed long life together!!!!

    • Why do you just assume that old men do not have any confidence in themselves? I am 23 and dating a 60 year old man who takes care of himself inside and out. He exercises daily, eats healthy unprocessed food, very rarely goes out and gets fast food, has never smoked, and drinks occasionally. He is as fit as a 30 year old, NOT WRINKLY at all, and even though he’s retired he owns about five houses and rents them out to people doing his OWN remodeling. He does all the yard work, helps decorate for the holidays, and we both have a lot in common surprisingly. I didn’t just go out and start “looking” for older men. We both just found each other and started out as friends and became lovers. We are both very happy with each other and that’s all that matters.

  4. LAST 10 YEARS AGO I TAKE MATURITY. NOW I AM 23 YEARS OLD.
    LAST 4 YEARS AGO I MARRIED IN AGE OF 19. WITH A OLD MAN AGE OF 55. THE OLD MAN IS RICH PERSON . MY FATHER IS IS FRIEND OF MY HUSBAND. AND WORK ON HIS MILK FARM. MY FATHER WAS THE SUPERVISER OF THAT COMPANY. LAST 5 YEARS THE OLD MAN CAME TO MY HOUSE FREQUENTLY . HIS FIRST WIFE HAVE NO ISSUE SO HE TALK TO MY FATHER I WANT TO MARRIE TO YOUR DAUGHTER. MY FATHER IS POOR AND I HAVE 5 SISTER AND ONE YOUNG BROTHER. BECAUSE I AM ELDER DOUGHTER OF MY FATHER AND MOTHER THEY WANTS IF I MARRIED TO THE OLD MAN HE HELP TO MY FAMILY FINANCIAL MATTERS. SO MY PARENTS AGGEE AND GET ME MARRIED TO THE OLD PERSON OF 55. NOW I AM THE SECOND WIFE OF MY HUSBAND. NOW 4 YEARS LATTERS I AM MOTHER OF 2 DAUGHTER 3/2 AND NOW I ALSO PRAGANATE OF 6 MONTHS FOR 3 ISSUE. NOW MY HUSBAND MADE MORE THAN TWICE SEX-INTERCOURSE WITH ME FOR AT LEAST 30. WHEN HIS PENNIS ENTER INTO MY VAGINA ITS LIKE A BIG LONG GAZAR INTO MY VAGINA. MY HUSBAND ALSO HELPS FINANCIAL TO MY FAMILY . NOW MY TO SISTER MARRIED FOR MY HUSBAND’S FINANCIAL HELP. NOW I AM MOTHER OF 3 CHILD IN 4 YEARS. SO I THINK MY HUSBAND NOT A MAN OF 59 HE IS JUST 35 AND I FELL BECAUSE I AM NOW MOTHER OF 3 CHILD. NOW I FEEL 32. SO I NEVER FELL OLD MAN IS OLD IN SEXPLAY. JUST YOUNG WIFE CO-OPERATE HIM IN SEXPLAY HE GIVES YOU LOT OF SEX PLEASURE……

    • Hi SUNITA, I saw your SMS. But I could not understand how you are pleased by your older husband. If you become pregnent by your husband that means you are not satisfied by your husband or he is able to do you all. But if you satisfied by your husband thats OK. I think the relationship between husband and wife is the best relationship of all matters and also believe is the best practice. But 2nd maried is not good at all. Because women can share everything with others except husband.

  5. I AM A BEAUTIFUL LADY OF 27 . LAST FIVE YEARS AGO I STAY WITH MY ELDER SISTER WHO IS MARRIED LAST 6 YEARS. MY ELDER SISTER AGE IS 31 AND MY JIJA AGE IS 53 . MY SISTER HAS NO ISSUE FOR GYANIC PROBLAME . HER TUBE IS BLOCKED. MY JIJA ‘S MOTHER AND JIJA WANTS A CHILD . BECAUSE MY JIJA IS THE ONLY SON OF HIS PARENT. MY JIJA’S MOTHER’S WANT FOR ANOTHER MARRIAGE FOR MY JIJA. LAST 2 YEARS AGO ONCE MY SISTER SAID ME YOU GIVE ME A CHILD . I SAY’S HOW. MY SISTER SAID YOU MADE SEXUAL RELATION WITH YOUR JIJA AND GIVE ME CHILD. I WAS YOUNG THAT TIME AND WANT’S FOR TEAST OF SEXUAL PLEASURE. I AM AGGREE WITH MY SISTER PROPOSAL. ON THAT NIGHT MY JIJA BECAME MY FIRST HUSBAND
    AND PUTOFF MY DRESS WIH BRA .. FIRST HE PUT MY BREAST IN TO HIS MOUTH AND BUT HIS RIGHT HAND MIDDLE FINGER INTO MY VAGINA AND PUT UPS AND DOWN AFTER SOME I AM ALSO PUT MY JIJA WOW.. WHAT A PLEASURE I NEVER THINK MY JIJA MAN OF 55 GIVES ME SO MUCH SEXPLEASURE .. THERE AFTER I MADE EVERY DAY SEXRELATION WITH MY JIJA NOW I AM A MOTHER OF 1 YEAR DAUGHTER . NOW I AM ALSO PRAGENATE
    OF 4 MONTH AND WAITING FOR A ANOTHER CHILD . MY DIDI ALSO MADE SEXUAL RELATION WITH MY JIJA NOW I MARRIED WITH MY JIJA . NOW HE IS MY HUSBAND AND WE BOTH SISTER ARE HIS WIVES. WE LEAVE TOGETHER . MY DIDI ALSO LOVE MY DAUGHTER LIKE HER DAUGHTER. SHE ALWAYS TOLD ME YOU MADE SEXUAL REALATION EVERY DAY WITH YOUR HUSBAND.. I DO THAT NOW I THINK MAN NEVER OLD…

    • How I long to give you lots of gentle foreplay – to feel your clitoris engorging with sensual lust – to teasing her with whispering kisses and tonguing – all to your personal desire and encouragement – guiding my hand – my finger tips to your centre of lust – Darling, Every pleasure is for you and us to share – bringing on your ultimate and so intense ORGASMS xx

  6. hey guys if you are looking for a girlfriend i am the one i am 24 years old so call me my number is 9894922239 so call today.

  7. last 3 years ago i am a woman of 24 years. i belongs to a poor family . my father is a
    farmer and my mother is a house wife. i have four sister. i am elder doughter of my family. after my graduation i join a private nursing home . my boss is a surgon and head of that nursing home. his age
    is 57 . maximum times i have attened night sift. my boss is sexual person . many times he use nurse for his bed patner. when i join a old nurse staff say that this old man is very sexual . and you just now new
    so beware of him but i said he is a old man of 57 what he can do?
    just 15 days latter on i a night the old doctor call me to his chamber . i will think something serious so i went to his chamber in night 1 p.m.
    when i enter his room he shutdown the door of his chamber and take me to his bed i am very much afraid and said him i am a poor lady
    working here for my family poverty. he said i will marrie you and i will
    support to your family. on that day he made sexual-relation with me . i dont think that a old man of 57 gives me sexual pleasure. now i am 27 years and a mother of a 1 year son. now the oldman is my husband now his age is 60. but now he also make 1/2 sexual relation with me. now i think my husband is just 16 and i am verymuch sexual satisfied. some days ago our old nurse staff tell me that what happen
    the old man is old or young i said stop didi i was not mature at that time the old man make me old woman because now i am a mother of a 1 year son. so i am old woman now he is just father of a 1 year son so he is young man of 16. didi said you also make yourself young for your husband other wise he go for a another lady. i say no he made twice sexual relaton with me. now i feel old man never old he becames more romantic in old age. i am physically satisfied with my husband… so man never old.

  8. i am a lady of 28 years. i am in a job last 2 years ago . i am appoint as a personal secretary of my company boss. he is a old man of 55 years. i am belonges to a poor family and i have 3 sister. parentes are no more last 5 years ago. now i am the only earning person. my boss have a daughter who is married last 3 years ago. now she settle in u.k. with his husband. my boss’s wife is nomore last 8 years ago. because i am his personal sectary he told me his family matters.
    i also told him of my family story that i ave 3 sister and i am the earning person. he told me i will make you my wife. i aggred his proposal last year . last year i married a old man of 55 . he is 27 years older than me . but he gives me sexual pleasure 3/4 times like a young boy of 18. now i am a mother of a son 4 months ago. he gives me sexual pleasure and now my husband settled my 3 sister for higher study. now he is feel like a young boy of just 18. now i am sexualy satisfied.. so finally i think age does not come between love and sexual satisfication.

  9. i am now 21 years old woman . i made bad relation with my jija science
    2 years . and i became praganate 3 times and aborson them. last year i am married a old man of age 54 last year . he is 35 years older than
    me. now i have a doughter 2 months ago. i am satisfied with my husband. he loves me more when i tell him that i have bad relation
    with my jija in my early days. but now i only take sexual relation with my husband only. now i made 2/3 times sexual relation with my husband and also satisfied me. he loves me and i love him… so age
    does not matter in sexual life.

  10. I’m with a guy whose 36 & we’re happy despite the fact that he is 14 years older than me doesn’t matter to me. It by nomeans make him younger or makes me feel much older. However if two adults decide that they want to be together let them b… It’s their relationship. If you don’t agree with datin an older man then don’t. You can’t really speak for someone else.

  11. It is frightening how many of these comments are by people who have no idea what the article is saying. Can’t they tell the difference between theoretical research and their own dating preferences?

    Good grief, people, all the guy is saying is that, according to “evolutionary theory,” people shouldn’t live much past childbearing age, and here’s a clue to why they do. Not that YOU ought to hook up with somebody’s grandpa.

    Unless you want to, of course.

  12. This is nothing new and it will keep going on for the rest of time. As men get older middle age crisis or whatever you want to call it sets in and you get these guys chasing younger women. Does it make you younger? No, but it is a distraction to getting old :) ebook software

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  14. not a a qood thinq AT ALL & im what 16. Yeah get a clue ; they need to go to school & college.Like that saying thats true : qirls go to college to get more nollege & boys go to jupiter to get more stupider Lmfaohh itsz like your dauqhter datinq a WAY older dude i dont think you would like that.

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