While age-discrepant relationships are most severely condemned when they involve an adult and a minor, considerable social stigma also attaches to relationships between two adults when there is more than a ten-year difference in age. Accordingly, the Percy Foundation, under the guidance of President Thomas Hubbard, has undertaken a study of popular attitudes toward such relations, recruiting over 500 adult US respondents through the survey platform Prolific. Respondents were asked to evaluate a number of hypothetical scenarios involving romantic partners (both same-sex and opposite-sex) of similar and different ages on a five-point scale, ranging from “Absolutely inappropriate” to “Generally distasteful” to “I have mixed feelings” to “Probably acceptable” to “Just as acceptable as any other relationship.” They were also asked about their perception of the motives of people involved in such age-discrepant relationships.
The goal is to determine relative tolerance or intolerance of such relationships among various demographic groups, with particular focus on different perceptions based on sex, age, education, income, political ideology, and religiosity. The data is still being analyzed, but so far some interesting patterns have emerged. Most people are suspicious of age-gap relationships not only when they involve a minor, but even a young person of college age (i.e. 18-21). Attitudes are more accepting if people actually know someone involved in a relationship with more than a ten year age difference. So far, political ideology seems to have little impact on judgments. Judgments are slightly more negative when the older partner is female.
Finally, respondents were asked whether certain types of scholarly studies would have the potential to change their attitudes. We look forward to sharing the results of this innovative study in a scholarly journal.