An Analysis of Hollywood Relationship Age Gaps Over Time

A Report by Whitman Ochiai, Katherine Chang, Shirley Yuan, Laura Gong, and Luis Miguel Malenab

This paper provides an analysis of Hollywood movie romantic age gaps over time, focusing on how the age discrepancies have changed and how they are affected by factors such as sexual orientation and gender of the older partner. The primary variables of interest are gender, year of creation, and age gap. Here, we report that among the movies analyzed, the average age gap between heterosexual romantic film couples has decreased over time. Furthermore, films depicting heterosexual couples wherein the female character is older than her male counterpart have significantly lower age gaps than films with an older male romantic interest. Additionally, our analysis suggests a statistically-insignificant increase over time for movies with a homosexual main couple. Our findings indicate that movies are increasingly avoiding the depiction of couples with significant age gaps, which could speak to shifting social norms that emphasize the importance of balance of power in romance. However, there remains a stigma against older women dating younger men that does not manifest for older men, which impacts the willingness of movies to show older women engaging in romantic pursuits.