EvoPsych:
Research in the UK has shown that
appearance is more important than youth when men evaluate women's attractiveness; namely, that men find attractive older
women more subjectively desirable than healthy but otherwise average-looking
younger women.
Why is this important? Well, for one, it
suggests that the human sexual urge is based on aesthetic pleasure rather than
reproductive fitness (as evolutionary psychology would hold that an
average-looking yet fertile younger woman would be a better reproductive
investment than a highly attractive, but less fertile, older woman).