Study: It's good for women to pick older dads, to a point

Interesting study from Vienna finds that women who choose men a few years older than they are likely to have more babies than those who choose partners of the same age, according to research published last month in the British online journal Biology Letters.

Researchers Martin Feider and Susanne Huber looked at a sample of about 10,000 births to Swedish parents. They found that most babies were born to women whose partners were about four years older than they were. For men, the most babies were born to dads whose partner was six years younger. The authors conclude that a man's preference for a younger mate and a woman's preference for an older one yields "fitness benefits for both men and women and thus may be an evolutionarily acquired trait." Golly, not the most romantic viewpoint, is it?

I have not read the full study ($30 to download? yeesh...) but in media interviews, the researchers opine that males may be attracted to younger females because they will have a longer time to be fertile, while women may be attracted to older men because they are more likely to have the resources to provide for their families.

The numbers don't hold up when one of the couple is significantly older than the other. At ten years difference, the number of children produced is the same as same-age couples.

In the interest of full disclosure, I'm two years older than my wife, and we have two kids.