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"\n\tAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below\n\t\n\n\n\nAttention all cougars, boy-toys, sugar daddies, and everyone else looking to date way outside of your age bracket: It could be time to wise up. A new study conducted at the University of Colorado Boulder shows couples with large age discrepancies aren't the Hollywood happy endings we imagine them to be (cue Simon &amp;amp; Garfunkel's Mrs.Robinson). Instead, overall, people who marry someone significantly older or younger have lower earnings, are less educated, and are less attractive compared to those who marry someone their own age.\"Hugh Hefner is an outlier,\" says Hani Mansour, Ph.D, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Colorado Denver. Apparently. The study found that men who shack up with women who are significantly older or younger (cough, cough, Hef) make less money than those married to women of a similar age. And if that not-so-bulging-bank-accounts wasn't enough of a confidence crusher for guys who may be trying to mac on young thangs, a slew of intelligence tests conducted showed that men married to women at least eight years younger scored an average of 8.4 points less than those with wives of a comparable age. The only findings not particularly eyebrow-raising are that boy-toys of the Ashton Kutcher variety are more attractive than those in other age groups. \"Overall, the estimates indicate that individuals married to differently-aged spouses are less attractive than those married to similarly-aged spouses, with the possible exception of men married to older women,\" said researchers of the study. So older women want hot, young, chiseled men? That's no surprise. What we are surprised about is that men aren't as picky about the younger women they select to bunk up with, according to the study. Looks like we may be the more discriminating sex, after all.Another surprising find from this study is that while the term cougar has been more popular in the past few years than Andy Cohen at a Real Housewives reunion, it's no hot new trend. \"We really didn't find any evidence of a new cougar phenomenon,\" a researcher for the study said. \"Although their share has slightly increased over time, cougars have been among us since the 1960s.\" Word.Want more stories from Carson? Follow her on Twitter.Photo Credit: Getty Images"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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