London, Sep 26 (IANS): Most men have a tendency to be sexually interested in women in their mid-twenties, says an interesting study, adding that the reason is likely because women of this age are the most fertile.

“Men and women have different preferences regarding the age of their sexual partners and women's preferences are better realised than are men's,” said researchers in psychology at Abo Akademi University in Turku, Finland.

Men younger than 20 prefer women older than themselves while men older than 30 prefer women younger than themselves, the study noted.

Regarding the age of their actual sexual partners, the difference is however much smaller.

Researchers suggest that this pattern reflect the fact that when it comes to mating, women control the market.

Grounding their interpretation in evolutionary theory, the study found that because women are more selective than men in their sexual behaviour, men are more unlikely than women to have sex with their ideal partners.

“Therefore, men's actual behaviour follows more closely women's preferences than men's own preferences,” it pointed out.

To study this pattern, scientists gathered observations from a population-based sample of more than 12,000 Finnish people.

They found that women, on average, are interested in same-aged to somewhat older men than themselves and that this pattern displays itself across the entire life-span.

“The findings reflect that in our evolutionary past, men who have had sex with women in their mid-20s have had more offspring than other men,” the authors wrote.