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Study reveals average age at conception for men vs. women over past 250k years

phys.org

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Re: Study reveals average age at conception for men vs. women over past 250k years

#51

Post by dmitriid »

watwut wrote: post #44
pronlover723 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I watch a lot of old movies (30s-40s-50s). A ton of them have a 40s-50s man marrying a 20s woman. No idea if that was societal norm, mens fantasy, or whatever. I have to kind of believe movie execs would want the largest audience and so if 40s-50s men dating 20s women was not appealing to women of the time they'd been losing 1/2 the market. But, maybe these particular movies were the male equivalent of romance novels…

Afaik career of actress was considered to be dead by the time she was 40 or so for most. Younger are more sexy, basically. Male actors could play big roles later. It is not that older women did not existed in real life. They outnumbered old men in real life. Plus, movies always operated in fashions. What was depicted was heavily limited by big studios policies and by mandated codes. These limited topics and the way t…

Maryl Streep: when I turned forty, I was offered three witches in one year https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VH87lb_gc5U

Re: Study reveals average age at conception for men vs. women over past 250k years

#52

Post by hutzlibu »

midasuni wrote: post #42
pronlover723 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I watch a lot of old movies (30s-40s-50s). A ton of them have a 40s-50s man marrying a 20s woman. No idea if that was societal norm, mens fantasy, or whatever. I have to kind of believe movie execs would want the largest audience and so if 40s-50s men dating 20s women was not appealing to women of the time they'd been losing 1/2 the market. But, maybe these particular movies were the male equivalent of romance novels…

In the US, Men are 2-3 years older than women at first marriage and have been for a century https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/demo/tables/familie...

So it seems, that those movies are mainly targeted at older mens fantasy and do not represent reality. Quelle surprise.

Re: Study reveals average age at conception for men vs. women over past 250k years

#54

Post by james4k »

mertd wrote: post #8

Somewhat grim, but this has to be disregarding the humans who never reach the reproductive age or the ones who cannot keep their offspring alive. So there is some survivorship bias baked into the methodology.

And maternal mortality rates.

Re: Study reveals average age at conception for men vs. women over past 250k years

#55

Post by searealist »

kristopolous wrote: post #27

The perennial older male age is because men are fertile longer than women so statistics would tend to this pattern over a large enough population. There's power asymmetry, people are monsters and sexual predation is rampant but there's also biological feasibility at play here. To demonstrate, let's say that we have an imaginary equalityville where for every age pairing and sex act, there is an exactly equal one with…

And yet https://imgur.com/Ijgzwsk

Re: Study reveals average age at conception for men vs. women over past 250k years

#56

Post by zeristor »

jdthedisciple wrote: post #53

I sense overconfidence in the accuracy of the results. Wouldn't base any argument on such data.

Perhaps the researchers were more tentative but journalists need to make a story. Onus on me to read the paper.

But if there were several independent strands to support it it would give it more credence.

Re: Study reveals average age at conception for men vs. women over past 250k years

#57

Post by pooper »

hutzlibu wrote: post #52
midasuni wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US, Men are 2-3 years older than women at first marriage and have been for a century https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/demo/tables/familie...

So it seems, that those movies are mainly targeted at older mens fantasy and do not represent reality. Quelle surprise.

There is a simpler explanation. Those older men are known actors/stars who have established some influence in the industry. That or some people might buy tickets to watch movies because it has a familiar name in leading role. The combination of the two above might be enough to explain why the older men can still play lead roles in movies.

Re: Study reveals average age at conception for men vs. women over past 250k years

#58

Post by zeristor »

A few points, female fertility declines steeply past 40, but males not so much, so older males could conceivably father children with other females.

Dare I say it, and this may just be not right, Genghis Khan is purportedly supposed to have fathered thousands of children it is said he had 500 or so secondary wives (citation needed).

Since average (mean) income is famously a bit pointless due to a few very rich people, wouldn’t father’s age at conception be similarly effected?

Re: Study reveals average age at conception for men vs. women over past 250k years

#59

Post by GoblinSlayer »

hutzlibu wrote: post #52
midasuni wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US, Men are 2-3 years older than women at first marriage and have been for a century https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/demo/tables/familie...

So it seems, that those movies are mainly targeted at older mens fantasy and do not represent reality. Quelle surprise.

Or first marriage is not the only marriage.

Re: Study reveals average age at conception for men vs. women over past 250k years

#60

Post by wolverine876 »

MobiusHorizons wrote: post #35
wolverine876 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It frustrates me that people on HN, an intelligent crowd, draw conclusions without a serious basis. Why not ask, ' Is this study disregarding the humans who never reach the reproductive age or the ones who cannot keep their offspring alive ? Is there is some survivorship bias baked into the methodology ? ' You might find out - we might find out - rather than you guess wrong, never find out, and we all carry the error…

As I understand it, what the OP is saying is not something any study could ever control for without perfectly preserved DNA from a statistically significant sample of DNA from human populations going back to old generations. Any study that uses DNA collected from modern humans will weed out the DNA of humans whose descendants are not living today. Hence survivorship bias.

The problem is turning your 2 minute analysis into a conclusion instead of an informed question. The Internet is filled with such conclusions; another adds nothing.
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