The Psychology of Sexual Taboo

“People are turned on by photographs of people who resemble their close genetic counterparts,” say researchers. The recent findings shed light onto who we are attracted to and why. “‘People appear to be drawn to others who resemble their kin or themselves,’ said psychologist R. Chris Fraley of the University of Illinois, lead author of the study published July 20 in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. ‘It is possible, therefore, as Freud suggested, that incest taboos exist to counter this primitive tendency.’ The debate about whether aversions against incest stem from a cultural adaptation to suppress biological urge or a psychological adaptation that evolved by natural selection dates back to the early 1900s.”