In high school and college it was basically decided for us. You didn’t venture outside your class much, and if you did, you had external motivations like “prom” that got you into a year or two out of your age range. Fast forward to graduation caps flying, careers beginning, and the sudden deepening of the dating pool that you were wading around in for the past 20 something years...
Suddenly, it’s all adult swim, and we’re backstroking around without too much awareness of age-Or are we? Are the perceptions of dating someone older (or younger) rooted in our own gender restrictions that we place upon ourselves? Or are we just following the unmentioned rules of the dating pool?
It’s Just Lunch® was fascinated by this topic, so we did a survey (of course) a couple months back. What we found was that the idea that men prefer to date younger women, and women prefer to date older men, is still alive and well.
Only 8.7% of both men and women said that this age-old rule is the only way to go; with 44.6% saying that people may date a range of ages, but they’ll end up following the crowd.
35.7% of singles went out on a limb and said that age “appropriateness” plays a role in whom they chose to date, but in the end, they would be open to dating someone outside their age range.
Only 11% threw out the rules entirely and said “Who Cares!...Age is just a number.”
So what does all this mean? That the rules are totally up to you! Have fun in the pool, at whichever end you chose to swim.
