11-19-2025, 01:46 PM
It is very interesting and has been studied.
"It might seem like baffling behavior for a man (Albert Einstein) of his intellectual stature, but it makes perfect sense to evolutionary biologists. From kissing cousins to May-December relationships, from partners who look alike to those who seem entirely mismatched, the forces of attraction can appear random, arbitrary, and inexplicable. But they seem mysterious only because they operate on a primal plane, beneath our conscious awareness. Even the most unusual couplings are based, at some level, on an evolutionary calculus that has emerged over millennia.I Like You, You're Like MeLike all animals, we're drawn to partners who resemble us. It's part of a phenomenon biologists call assortative mating: Animals with similar traits mate with each other at rates that cannot be explained by chance. It's why Japanese common toads prefer toads of the same size, and why snow geese, which can be either blue or white, tend to pick a partner of the same color.
Many human couples look alike, too—in some cases, strikingly so."
"Family Ties
If similar traits mean similar genes, does it mean that we're attracted to our relatives? Yes and no, biologists say. Einstein wasn't the first, or the last, to fall in love with a cousin. In 1850, the average couple was the genetic equivalent of fourth cousins, according to a 2018 study based on 86 million genealogy website profiles, mostly from Western Europe and North America. It wasn't until the late 19th century that family trees really spread their branches. By 1950, couples were roughly seventh cousins, on average."
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"But the practice has historically made people uneasy as well. The Marriage Act of 1835 made such unions illegal in the U.K.; the Church of England considered in-laws to be close relatives and therefore unfit for marriage. (Parliament overturned the prohibition in 1907.) And the enduring power of Hamlet may speak to a lurking suspicion that the attraction between a widow and her in-law could be a pre-existing condition."
The Forces of Attraction | Psychology Today
Geez, now I get why my neighbor said that when her ex-husband and the widow of a deceased family member of hers hooked up that it was incest, which I did not understand at the time why she would think that, nor could she explain it, just that it was incest.
"It might seem like baffling behavior for a man (Albert Einstein) of his intellectual stature, but it makes perfect sense to evolutionary biologists. From kissing cousins to May-December relationships, from partners who look alike to those who seem entirely mismatched, the forces of attraction can appear random, arbitrary, and inexplicable. But they seem mysterious only because they operate on a primal plane, beneath our conscious awareness. Even the most unusual couplings are based, at some level, on an evolutionary calculus that has emerged over millennia.I Like You, You're Like MeLike all animals, we're drawn to partners who resemble us. It's part of a phenomenon biologists call assortative mating: Animals with similar traits mate with each other at rates that cannot be explained by chance. It's why Japanese common toads prefer toads of the same size, and why snow geese, which can be either blue or white, tend to pick a partner of the same color.
Many human couples look alike, too—in some cases, strikingly so."
"Family Ties
If similar traits mean similar genes, does it mean that we're attracted to our relatives? Yes and no, biologists say. Einstein wasn't the first, or the last, to fall in love with a cousin. In 1850, the average couple was the genetic equivalent of fourth cousins, according to a 2018 study based on 86 million genealogy website profiles, mostly from Western Europe and North America. It wasn't until the late 19th century that family trees really spread their branches. By 1950, couples were roughly seventh cousins, on average."
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"But the practice has historically made people uneasy as well. The Marriage Act of 1835 made such unions illegal in the U.K.; the Church of England considered in-laws to be close relatives and therefore unfit for marriage. (Parliament overturned the prohibition in 1907.) And the enduring power of Hamlet may speak to a lurking suspicion that the attraction between a widow and her in-law could be a pre-existing condition."
The Forces of Attraction | Psychology Today
Geez, now I get why my neighbor said that when her ex-husband and the widow of a deceased family member of hers hooked up that it was incest, which I did not understand at the time why she would think that, nor could she explain it, just that it was incest.
"The only journey is the one within."
