Young men look for an attractive partner and young women emphasise personality but as we age, everyone agrees physical attributes are overrated The ch

The ideal partner: how men and women perceive attractiveness as they grow older

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2021-05-20 02:40:02

Young men look for an attractive partner and young women emphasise personality but as we age, everyone agrees physical attributes are overrated

The characteristics that attract people to an ideal partner differ between men and women, but become more similar with age, a survey of more than 7,000 Australian online dating users has found.

Researchers asked 7,325 Australians aged between 16 and 65 to rate the importance of nine characteristics of potential partners on a scale of 0 to 100.

The characteristics fell into three categories: aesthetics (age, attractiveness, physical build); resources (intelligence, education, income); and personality (trust, openness, emotional connection).

The study, published in the scientific journal Plos One, found both sexes rated physical build, attractiveness and all three personality traits as highly important. Income was rated as less important.

Men aged 18 to 25 assigned higher priority to attractiveness and physical build, but as men got older these factors became less important.