Remember the Dating Equation from a while back, that formula that determines the socially acceptable bounds for the age of a female companion given the age of the male partner? Well, the crack data analysis team at Revolution Analytics decided to take the 100 hottest celebrity couples of 2010, and create a scatterplot of the couple's ages (using R), to see how well celebrities adhere to the rule that no man should date a woman less than half his age, plus seven years.
It turns out that celebrity men need a little more latitude to define what makes a socially-acceptable relationship. For the Hot 100 at least, the rule appears to be: never date a woman younger than half the man's age, plus six (rather than seven) years. (That also means a celebrity woman should never date a man older than twice her age, less six years.) With that tweak, only Hugh Hefner and Madonna break the rule; the remaining 98 hottest celebrities fit the model perfectly. (It's not clear how the Rule applies to Elton John and David Furnish, though.)
And what better way to display such groundbreaking analysis than with a fancy infographic? We've even thrown in some analysis of celebrity income data in there for good measure. Click on the image for a full-size version.
"never date a woman younger than half the man's age, plus six (rather than seven) years. (That also means a celebrity woman should never date a man older than twice her age, less six years.)"
Sorry, I think you did the math wrong.
The rule is W >= 1/2 M + 6 (actually 7 but ok)
If you solve this for M you get
2(W-6) = 2W - 12 >= M
While what you say in the text and the upper limit on your graph is 2W - 6 >= M.
If you move the line to 2W - 12 >= M
or really 2W - 14 >= M
then many men are too old for the women they are with. I know because my partner was too young for me when we started (but we are fine now).
Did you plot people when they got together or the age they are currently. Because you know as time goes by we start following the rule when we did not initially. All the best (an old mathematician with a young statistician).
Posted by: Jeff Edmonds | March 27, 2011 at 19:36
Love the article! I'm curious if there are any patterns between individual income and where you end up on this chart.
Jeff Edmonds is 100% correct and the math error appears to be a common mistake when interpreting the rule. It has shown up here and in a number of posts on the Urban Dictionary entry for "half-your-age-plus-seven"
Some may find it easier to use a factored version when calculating this in their head:
M <= (W-7) x 2.
Imagine shifting the top line on the graph 3 years to the right and you will have what Revolution Analytics intended. It appears that only a few more couples are over the line so the article is still very valid and interesting.
(Over at OneHalfPlusSeven we post notable couples who walk the line of the half-your-age-plus-seven rule.)
Posted by: OneHalfPlusSeven | March 28, 2011 at 00:44
Now I know why I have been married three times! All the women I married were way too old!! I always knew it was their fault. Thanks to David and statisitcs my life is saved. Now does anyone know a 27 year old who is single?
It would also be cool to see the expected years together of the various ranges.
Posted by: kirk | March 30, 2011 at 06:14
I agree never marry a woman half your age,it usually doesn't work.
Posted by: sarah | November 15, 2011 at 13:53
Technically speaking, as long as two people are not the exact same age, they will one day, or have already, fit this rule perfectly. One easy way to determine when two people will fit this rule is by downloading the iPhone app, "Dating Calc." It can be found on iTunes from this link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dating-calc/id493736462?ls=1&mt=8.
Posted by: Ryan | January 14, 2012 at 20:14
Very interesting and funny... but every relationship has her own rules...
Posted by: James | April 11, 2012 at 14:38