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Jiro comments on Open Thread, Jul. 13 - Jul. 19, 2015 - Less Wrong Discussion
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The big phrase to keep in mind for incest is "conflict of interest". We are expected to keep certain kinds of social relations with our relatives. Also having romantic and sexual relationships conflicts with those.
Furthermore, because there is a natural tendency for humans to be less attracted to close relatives than to others, it is in practice very likely that a sexual/romantic relationship with a close relative will be dysfunctional in other ways--so likely that we may be better off just outlawing them period even if they are not necessarily dysfunctional.
I am of the opinion that I am "of similar brain" genetically and phenotypically and equally theoretically "of similar mind" to people who are related to me. Therefore able to get along with them better. When looking for partners today, I look for people "of similar mind", or at least I feel like its a criteria of mine.
Do you have a source for "natural tendency for humans to be less attracted to close relatives than to others"? I am interested.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westermarck_effect
Thanks! I am not sure how my knowledge of the universe had a hole in this specific space.
One mechanism is the MHC complex
There are other mechanism that prevent siblings that lived together as children from developing romantic interest in each other as well. As a result most cases of incest between siblings are not by siblings that lived together as children.
That has impressive applications on why foreigners or "exotic" people have a bonus placed on them for desirability. I must say I did know about MHC mechanism, and the studies done on birds, but not the human one. Also I did not connect the two.
Thanks!