Thread by @datepsych

It's hard not to interpret "don't date them, we will ridicule you" as intrasexual competition.

https://twitter.com/ElyKreimendahl/status/1662999631523897344

I actually didn't find much evidence for age-based intrasexual competition when I looked at age gaps. Older women didn't disapprove more of them.

datepsychology.com/age-gaps-hiera…

The big difference was that people who had large age gaps (10+ years) at some point in their lives were more supportive of them.

A lot of women had a big age gap at some point!

But since women who had large age gaps were more supportive of them, it also didn't support the belief that bad personal experiences with age gaps drove disapproval.

The relationship between "dark" personality traits (Dark Triad, SDO) and support for age gaps was also pretty low individually.

But together they could explain a decent bit of the variance in age gap support. Men who are older, high in psychopathy and social dominance orientation, and low in hostile world beliefs, might be more supportive.

A common belief is that older, more manipulative men might seek out age gaps. That provides a little bit of support that at least for some people it might be the case.

So, the old guy who loves young girls trope? Yeah could be a thing.

Interestingly, Machiavellianism didn't predict it. So it may represent more of a disregard for social norms than a desire to manipulate young women. SDO/psych may also indicate a desire for power.

The best explanation for me at this point is that it just represents a taboo. We have a lot of beliefs about relationship taboos that aren't based in much, just a visceral "ick."

And most older men aren't especially attractive. Most women have had the experience of being hit on by an old guy that they think is gross as well.

If all men at 40 looked like silver foxes, would we have the age gap taboo? Probably not.

Past research on age gaps hasn't confirmed a lot of popular beliefs about them. They don't seem to be more abusive, result in worse outcomes, attract broken people or whatever.

https://twitter.com/datepsych/status/1558076707826966528?t=lBXpFthyqubDm9DmrnPl7A&s=19

But also, historical age gaps in Europe have been fairly rare. Contrary to popular belief that it used to be really common for old men to marry teens, or to have huge age gaps.

https://twitter.com/datepsych/status/1611843027437338625?t=lBXpFthyqubDm9DmrnPl7A&s=19

If I were to go back and reexamine the age gap question, I would ask if single women were less likely to be supportive of age gaps. Maybe we would see support for the intrasexual competition hypothesis there.

Perhaps more closely related to age gaps as a taboo, there was a difference by politics. The further right on the left-right spectrum, the more likely someone was to have had an age gap relationship.

And while I didn't find evidence for intrasexual competition in women, I did for men.

Younger men were less likely to support age gap relationships.

Makes a lot of sense: young men don't benefit from competing with older men. They tend to be lower in things associated with "mate value." Basically no reason for them to support age gaps.