Women are just as attracted to younger partners as men, suggests a new study.

Men and women alike are drawn to bedding younger potential sexual conquests — whether or not they realize it, say scientists.

The conclusion came from an American study of 4,500 blind dates of people seeking a long-term partner.

Study lead author Paul Eastwick, a professor of psychology at University of California, Davis, said: “After a blind date, participants were slightly more attracted to younger partners, and this trend was equally true for men and women.

“This preference for youth among women will be shocking to many people, because in mixed-gender couples, men tend to be older than women.

“Plus, women generally say they prefer older partners.

“But women’s preferences on the dates themselves revealed something else entirely.”

This study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), sampled a diverse age range, with daters ranging from 22 to 85.

The research team say it is the first study to examine the link between a partner’s age and romantic desire in a blind date setting among people seeking long-term partners.

Researchers looked at data from more than 6,000 participants who were set up on blind dates by the matchmaking company Tawkify.

Half the daters were men and the other half women, and most were set up on mixed-sex dates. More than half reported being white, with the rest making up multiple races and ethnicities.

In answering survey questions, most reported having an upper age limit as to dates they preferred, but the self-reported age limit had no bearing on the daters’ actual choices.

The researchers also looked at whether women of higher income might be inclined to choose a younger partner.

Some of the women in the study were fairly wealthy.

But there was very little evidence that income — either their dates’ or their own — influenced these women’s slight preference for youth, according to the findings.

The study did not look at whether romantic attraction on a first date led to longer-term relationships.

But Eastwick added: “These findings suggest that men and women find youth a little more appealing in initial attraction setting — whether they know it or not.”