AGE PREFERENCES AND MATE CHOICE AMONG HOMOSEXUALS AND HETEROSEXUALS -A CASE FOR MODULAR PSYCHOLOGICAL MECHANISMS

Age preferences expressed by homosexuals and heterosexuals in 783 sing les ads were compared. In line with earlier cross-cultural findings, h eterosexual women at all ages tend to prefer men from their own age to several years older. Heterosexual men change with age; young men show an interest in both older and younger women, but older men express pr ogressively stronger interest in women younger than themselves. Homose xual men's preferences were very similar to those of heterosexual men and homosexual women showed a pattern somewhat between that of heteros exual women and men. Results combine with previous literature to sugge st that homosexual choice is not a simple and general reversal of hete rosexual roles, and fit with an emerging view that sexual behavior is controlled by a number of independently evolved psychological mechanis ms.