Anon meets a girl at a wedding

Second cousins hardly matters. Even 1st cousins only increase the chance of anomaly by 3%. 2nd cousins is background noise. If you make each other happy, go for it and let anyone who complains enjoy their divorces.

This guy fucks cousins.
- Second cousins.

I used to work with this absolute idiot when I was a kid. He was married to his cousin. But apparently he was such a gross dude, that it was too much for her, so she left him. For his brother. She ended up having a couple kids, one with each brother.

Talk about going out of your way to keep it in the family. Their family tree was tied in a knot.

Heh, second cousin is far enough.

Second cousin means cousin second order (grandchild of a sibling of one of your grandparents), right?
- Yes
- Another way I like to think of it is it's your parent's cousin's kid. So you can see why from their perspective it would feel more closely related, it would be like you having a kid and your cousin having a kid and then you seeing them together.
- A parent's first cousin. Your first cousin's child would be a first cousin once removed.

This is how anons are conceived.

A lot of people here are saying that the more genetically similar you are to somebody, the more attractive they are (so long as you don't grow up with them). I'm here to tell you that those guys are completely wrong

Studies have shown that (in other animals unfortunately, not in humans) that the more genetically dissimilar two individuals are, the more attracted they are, so long as they can produce viable offspring (aka they can have kids)

This study would also be done on humans, but that would be slightly morally questionable

This is an evolutionary trait in order to incentivise us to increase the gene pool when possible. You can imagine what would happen if we only rucked our cousins (look at the royals)

Source: am biomed student

Oh man we did the Hapsburgs in my genetics class and it's so fucking gross how closely related those incestuous fucks were. First cousins as closely related on a genetic level as siblings.

Edit: LOOK AT THIS UGLY FUCKER! Even better - these genetic monstrosities still have money.
- I'm not comfortable condemning them for their crippling genetic disabilities (except where they perpetuate it), but they did do the majority of leading countries involved in WWI. And not only do these fucks still have money, they fund modern fascist movements and hateful propaganda as well as still being politically influential. The head of the family is an ambassador for the country his family took from superpower to "I could've sworn you were the kangaroo country"
Yeah you often strive for maximum compatible difference. There's no instinct to create a family ladder

banjos quietly play in the background

Softly in the night

That happened to a few of my cousins years ago. We were at a family function so I thought they would've put two and two together, but alas.

A few? Not just two??
- I saw that after pressing send and thought to myself, ah, no one'll pull me up on that.
- They just got a good vibe, you know?

Eh second cousin marriage isn’t a big deal in some cultures

Second cousins is kissing cousins, have at it!

Isn't there some sort of biological thing where you're more likely to be sexually attracted to your relatives if you don't know they're you're relatives

Second degree cousins is not that close though. If every generation has three children, that's 27 persons. I thinks that for most of human history excluding second degree cousins from the acceptable partners pool would have been impossible. Communities were not that big.
- Second degree cousins
  
  I can't stop laughing.
- And if my maths is correct, you only share on average 12.5% of your DNA with them
- Groups often came together to party and marry people.
  
  There are even rules, like exogamy is common.
All I could find on this is something called "genetic sexual attraction" ^[1], though Wikipedia contains arguments that it's pseudoscience ^[1.1]. Here's a Reddit post asking about this. ^[3].

Related to this, I also came across the "Westermarck effect" ^[2] which appears to suggest that people who grow up together are less likely to be romantically attracted to each other ^[2.1].

References

"Genetic sexual attraction". Wikipedia. Published: 2024-10-14T18:46Z. Accessed: 2024-12-09T07:29Z. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_sexual_attraction.

§"Criticism"

Critics of the hypothesis have called it pseudoscience. In a Salon piece, Amanda Marcotte called the concept "half-baked pseudoscientific nonsense that people dreamed up to justify continuing unhealthy, abusive relationships".[8] The use of "GSA" as an initialism has also been criticized, since it gives the notion that the phenomenon is an actual diagnosable "condition".

Many have noted the lack of research on the subject. While acknowledging the "phenomenon of genetic sexual attraction", Eric Anderson, a sociologist and sexologist, noted in a 2012 book that "[t]here is only one academic research article" on the subject, and he critiqued the paper for using "Freudian psycho-babble".

"Westermarck effect". Wikipedia. Published: 2024-09-26T14:09Z. Accessed: 2024-12-09T07:33Z. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westermarck_effect.

The Westermarck effect […] is a psychological hypothesis that states that people tend not to be attracted to peers with whom they lived like siblings before the age of six.

"How does nature prevent us from feeling sexually attracted to relatives who are objectively sexually attractive? ". Author: "Morgentau7" (u/Morgentau7). "r/TooAfraidToAsk". Reddit. Published: 2024-09-25T17:50:08.227Z. Accessed: 2024-12-09T07:34Z. https://www.reddit.com/r/TooAfraidToAsk/comments/1fpaold/how_does_nature_prevent_us_from_feeling_sexually/.
Yeah, that's weird: genetically similiar people are more attractive (as long as it isn't too similiar)(people in stable relationships often look alike) but bigger genetical difference is better.
Yes, one of the primary components of attraction is familiarity. Also proximity and similarity.
Well there was that movie, Code 46.

Erotic fan-fic at its finest.

This is the only one that isn't fake

Kissin cousins has always been a thing.

Reminds me of the time I fucked my cousin a few times. She moved I now miss her.

Oh hey look. The story of how Rudy Giuliani found his wife!

Edit: ex wife, sorry forgot the church didn't condone their boning like they wanted so they had to get a divorce.

Edit. I understand now, thanks.

What is a second cousin? Your cousins cousin? The person your aunt/uncle marrieds niece/nephew? That can't be right, that's not blood. Help! Lol

I find this chart helpful to see family relationships.
- Then its not even an issue at all from a genetic standpoint. People might find their relationship weird but their children would turn out healthy.
- Where do we draw the line when a cousin becomes acceptable? I want a clear number
- That is helpful, thanks
- Meanwhile the Chinese need a calculator to find out what to call their father's sister's daughter's husband's father
My aunt’s kid is my cousin. My cousin’s kid and my kid are second cousins.

It’s essentially finding the most recent common ancestor. My cousins and I share grandparents. Second cousins share great-grandparents, and so on.

“Once removed” and such refers to generational differences. So, my first cousin’s kid is my first cousin once removed, and my kid’s second cousin.
- Gotcha. I was thinking across the tree, not down it. Thank you
I'm pretty sure it's the children of your parent's cousins
What is a second cousin?

Someone with whom your most recent common ancestor is a great grandparent to both of you.

Like how a first cousin is someone with whom your most recent common ancestor is a grandparent to both of you (aka you both have a same grandparent but not a same parent - meaning one of each of your parents are siblings with each other).

If the most recent common ancestor isn't the same relation for both of you, then there's probably a "times removed" or one of you is some variety of aunt/uncle to the other.
- Thanks for ignoring the edit on my comment.
Your Nan's sisters granddaughter
- My not a number?

Second cousins you don't share even blood

Comment:

Second cousin in my country is a cousin from the part not related to any of my parents of one of my cousins. What is weird of that?

For example, my cousin is one of my father's brother son, then my second cousin has to be (otherwise would be a cousin too) the daughter of the cousin's mother's brother.

If I pick a random girl I would be equally related genetically.

Uh...yeah you do. Just not very much of it
- I don't share my blood with anyone. You keep your grubby hands to yourself.
- Dude second cousin in my country is a cousin from the part not related to any of my parents of one of my cousins. What is weird of that?
  
  For example, my cousin is one of my father's brother son, then my second cousin has to be (otherwise would be a cousin too) the daughter of the cousin's mother's brother.
In the country this post was most likely typed, your second cousin is the cousin of your mom or dad. That's what's weird of that
- The child of the cousin of your mom or dad actually

Careful anon, that's how you get a Habsburg child

I mean, probably not with a second cousin, unless you do it for hundreds of years. Greater risk of birth defects if you have children over 30.
- Yeah even first cousins are actually not that bad, biologically speaking, if it's only done for one (or probably even two?) generation.
- To be honest though, there's always going to be a risk of birth defects if you're having more than 30 kids.
- Having children after 40 greatly increases chances of birth defects, I can only imagine what happens after hundreds of years.
- And at this point, with all of the toxins from food processing/preservatives and the plastics getting into our bodies, the added risk is probably negligible.