Science. Do we love it or what?

Men’s and women’s ideas of the perfect mate differ significantly due to evolutionary pressures, according to a cross-cultural study on multiple mate preferences by psychologists at The University of Texas at Austin.

The study of 4,764 men and 5,389 women in 33 countries and 37 cultures showed that sex differences in mate preferences are much larger than previously appreciated and stable across cultures.

“Many want to believe that women and men are identical in their underlying psychology, but the genders differ strikingly in their evolved mate preferences in some domains,” said co-author of the study and psychology professor David Buss. “The same holds true in highly sexually egalitarian cultures such as Sweden and Norway as in less egalitarian cultures such as Iran.”

Anyone want to take a guess at what that difference might be? Stand by for a shocker:

According to the study, men favor mates who are younger and physically attractive. Women seek older mates with good financial prospects, higher status and ambition.

While this study’s conclusions seems pretty obvious to anyone who has men and women among his or her acquaintances it will, no doubt, shock many who insist that, against all evidence, that Bruce Jenner is now a woman. It also seems to indicate that in that bygone era when privileged young women attended elite women’s colleges to pursue an MRS degree, that they were responding to basic evolutionary instinct rather than being oppressed by the patriarchy. It also explains why, as society eliminates ambition and job opportunities for men, so many women never marry.