Relationships between older women and younger men are drawing more attention as traditional dating expectations continue to shift.Tammy Nelson, a board-certified sexologist, sex therapist and integrative relationship therapist in Los Angeles, told Fox News Digital that she is seeing greater interest in these age-gap relationships."Older women and younger men are now a thing," she said."I know a lot of older women, even my age, that are dating or … being attracted to younger men."Polling and research in recent years suggests that traditional dating rules around age may be loosening.POLITICAL FIGHTS CAN RIP COUPLES APART — THERAPIST SHARES 3 WAYS TO SAVE A RELATIONSHIPA 2023 Bumble poll of 26,849 dating-app users across more than 20 countries found that 59% of women were more open to dating someone younger, while 35% said they had become less judgmental about age-gap relationships.Polling and research in recent years suggests that traditional dating rules around age may be loosening.
(iStock)A 2025 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences similarly found that men and women were both slightly more attracted to younger partners after blind dates.The study, which included adults ages 22 to 85, measured initial attraction rather than long-term relationship outcomes."This preference for youth among women will be shocking to many people," Paul Eastwick, a psychology professor at the University of California, Davis, and lead author of the study, said in a university news release.
"But women’s preferences on the dates themselves revealed something else entirely.""You can teach each other and share with each other a different perspective about the world."A separate 2024 analysis of nearly 36,000 couples across 29 European countries found that women’s tendency to partner with slightly older men shifted toward same-age partners as they grew older.Together, the findings do not establish a definitive rise in older women dating younger men, b...