Puberty occurs much earlier in modern societies.
Relative to Victorian/Industrial age societies yes. If you compare it to pre-industrial societies it seems that the age of puberty is returning to its historical norm after a couple centuries of being unusually high.
Recently postpubescent girls and boys are children, and most people are turned off by the personalities of children (which of course makes evolutionary sense, as well as cultural sense in most societies). The age group you're thinking of is closer to 18 than to 15.
Which raises the question of why in modern societies 15-year-olds have childlike personalities. For example, in Jewish society children were traditionally considered adults at 13.
Which raises the question of why in modern societies 15-year-olds have childlike personalities. For example, in Jewish society children were traditionally considered adults at 13.
Blame the Industrial Revolution. Adults went to work, and children went to school, which, unlike biological childhood, doesn't end when people reach sexual maturity.
Why don’t men go for younger women? That’s not quite accurate, because they do, but we seem to have a cultural norm against girls who have recently exited puberty, even though they are highly fertile. Some time in the last few hundred years, we reached a cultural norm that as a man gets older, it’s increasingly less appropriate for him to be with a sixteen year old. That’s not long enough to override thousands of years of evolution, so what could have contributed to it?
The best solution I’ve heard started by looking at who benefits from this norm [older women] and wondering whether they could have contributed to it. After all, the strength of this norm has been increased in the last sixty years or so, which coincides with the period in which women’s power has increased.
One alternative I heard recently is that it doesn’t make sense biologically to go for women who are recently post-pubescent, as they don’t make the best mothers. Instead, a slightly older woman [mid-twenties] makes sense to be the best mother. This is perfectly plausible.
Another, less plausible, suggestion I’ve heard is that it’s to do with mental capacity. I find this unconvincing because we have few objections to a high-status man dating a beautiful but low-intellect woman.
Thoughts?