Claim 1 (blind dates / younger preferred): A 2025 PNAS study by Eastwick and colleagues analyzed a set of blind dates among middle-aged adults seeking long-term partners. The sample was a set of N = 6,262 middle-aged adults who signed up for a blind date service, and preregistered tests revealed that people were (slightly) attracted to younger partners on average, and this association did not differ by gender. Coverage of the study describes the effect as small but consistent: both men and women were slightly more likely to rate younger partners as desirable, with daters choosing the younger of two potential partners about 55% of the time. The study specifically examined attraction in a blind-date context, not stated preferences.

Claim 2 (women 10+ years older report higher satisfaction): Reported in a March 2023 Psychology Today blog post by Justin Lehmiller. Lehmiller reported that women who were more than 10 years older than their male partners were the most satisfied with and committed to their relationships compared with both women who were younger than their partners, as well as women in other age configurations. Lehmiller proposed a mechanism: when a woman is older than her male partner, this may shift power dynamics toward greater equality, and older women may feel more empowered to get what they want in their relationships, sexually and otherwise. Sample size context: in Lehmiller's survey of roughly 200 heterosexual women, those more than 10 years older than their male partners were, on average, thriving.