Cross-cultural studies indicate that women's sexual attractiveness generally peaks before motherhood & declines with age. Cues of female youth are thought to be attractive because humans maintain long-term pair bonds, making reproductive value (future reproductive potential) particularly important to males

Male Chimpanzees Prefer Mating with Old Females. Martin N. Muller, Melissa Emery Thompson, Richard W. Wrangham. Current Biology, Volume 16, Issue 22, p2234–2238, November 21 2006. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2006.09.042

Summary: Cross-cultural studies indicate that women's sexual attractiveness generally peaks before motherhood and declines with age [1]. Cues of female youth are thought to be attractive because humans maintain long-term pair bonds, making reproductive value (i.e. future reproductive potential) particularly important to males [2, 3]. Menopause is believed to exaggerate this preference for youth by limiting women's future fertility [1, 4]. This theory predicts that in species lacking long-term pair bonds and menopause, males should not exhibit a preference for young mates. We tested this prediction by studying male preferences in our closest living relative, the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). We show that despite their promiscuous mating system, chimpanzee males, like humans, prefer some females over others. However, in contrast to humans, chimpanzee males prefer older, not younger, females. These data robustly discriminate patterns of male mate choice between humans and chimpanzees. Given that the human lineage evolved from a chimpanzee-like ancestor, they indicate that male preference for youth is a derived human feature, likely adapted from a tendency to form unusually long term mating bonds

Cross-cultural studies indicate that women's sexual attractiveness generally peaks before motherhood & declines with age. Cues of female youth are thought to be attractive because humans maintain long-term pair bonds, making reproductive value (future reproductive potential) particularly important to males

Romantic attraction, likelihood of selecting, & subsequent interpersonal outcomes with a dating partner almost exclusively depend on perception of the dating partner’s mate value: the higher, the better. No evidence for the idea that people feel attracted to & select dating partners whom they perceive to have a mate value similar to their own

Wurst, Stefanie N., Sarah Humberg, and Mitja Back 2018. “Preprint of "the Impact of Mate Value in First and Subsequent Real-life Romantic Encounters"”. Open Science Framework. January 26. osf.io/adej3

Abstract: We provide a first systematic investigation of the most prominent hypotheses about the impact of mate value on interpersonal attraction in real-life early-stage romantic encounters. Using Response Surface Analysis, we simultaneously examined how (a) people’s perception of their own mate value, (b) their perception of a potential partner’s mate value, and (c) the interplay between the two mate values impact initial romantic attraction and selection as well as subsequent interpersonal outcomes after selection. Data came from the “Date me for Science” speed-dating study (n = 398), in which participants who mutually selected each other at the speed-dating event were followed up with 3 assessments in the 6 weeks after the event to assess subsequent outcomes. Participants’ romantic attraction, likelihood of selecting, and subsequent interpersonal outcomes with a dating partner almost exclusively depended on their perception of their dating partner’s mate value: the higher, the better. There was no evidence for the popular matching hypothesis, which states that people feel attracted to and select dating partners whom they perceive to have a mate value similar to their own. Implications of these findings for theory and research on the impact of mate value on romantic attraction and selection are discussed.