This may explain cougars

The following is the abstract for a paper titled “Reproduction Expediting: sexual motivations, fantasies, and the ticking biological clock”, by Judith Easton, Jaime Confer, Cari Goetz and David Buss, to be published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences:

Abstract: Beginning in their late twenties, women face the unique adaptive problem of declining fertility eventually terminating at menopause. We hypothesize women have evolved a reproduction expediting psychological adaptation designed to capitalize on their remaining fertility. The present study tested predictions based on this hypothesis—these women will experience increased sexual motivations and sexual behaviors compared to women not facing a similar fertility decline. Results from college and community samples (N = 827) indicated women with declining fertility think more about sex, have more frequent and intense sexual fantasies, are more willing to engage in sexual intercourse, and report actually engaging in sexual intercourse more frequently than women of other age groups. These findings suggest women’s “biological clock” may function to shift psychological motivations and actual behaviors to facilitate utilizing remaining fertility.

UPDATE: Other as-yet-unpublished papers in the queue:

“I just cannot control myself: The Dark Triad and self-control”
“The dark side of love: Love styles and the Dark Triad”
“Neuroticism, stress, and coping in the context of an anagram-solving task”
“Rumination and depressive symptoms: Evidence for the moderating role of hope”
“Male faces and bodies: Evidence of a condition-dependent ornament of quality”
“Sex differences in perceptions of benefits and costs of mate poaching”
“Prejudice-relevant correlates of humor temperaments and humor styles”
“Disgust: A predictor of social conservatism and prejudicial attitudes toward homosexuals”
“I feel unique, therefore I am: The development and preliminary validation of the personal sense of uniqueness (PSU) scale”

I may have to take out a subscription.

Monitor: Tim Worstall