The geneticist Jim Wilson, at the University of Edinburgh, was shocked by the frequency he found in the U.K. Biobank, an anonymized research database: One in 7,000 people, according to his unpublished analysis, was born to parents who were first-degree relatives—a brother and a sister or a parent and a child. “That’s way, way more than I think many people would ever imagine,” he told me. And this number is just a floor: It reflects only the cases that resulted in pregnancy, that did not end in miscarriage or abortion, and that led to the birth of a child who grew into an adult who volunteered for a research study.

Most of the people affected may never know about their parentage, but these days, many are stumbling into the truth after AncestryDNA and 23andMe tests.

  • idiomaddict@feddit.de
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    10 months ago

    I’ve been thinking it’s pretty common for a while, just because of how common a version of it with plausible deniability for the downsides (step siblings, etc.) is in porn. I know people say it’s just to appeal to people who really like it and the rest can just mute, but that’s very unconvincing. I always have porn muted, because the sounds don’t do much for me and just about every person I talk to about this (not a lot, so grain of salt) is surprised that anyone would mute as a rule. Secondly, I don’t think you really need words to pick up on the incest vibe.

    • errer@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      My theory about all the step sibling porn is that they’re trying to get you to pay for the “normal” porn. “Yes you can watch it for free…but wouldn’t it be better if it wasn’t so weird?” I don’t think most people find those story lines appealing.

      • DarkThoughts@fedia.io
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        9 months ago

        Sibling or other incestuous roleplay is super common actually. The step sibling stuff on porn sites afaik was once again enforced from their payment providers or advertisers. Because people who aren’t related, but acting like they are, are apparently turning the world into Sodom & Gomorrah, and based on some of those weird virgin or conspiracytard comments here it seems that some people actually do believe this too.

      • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I think the idea is that step porn is basically just normal porn past the first few opening lines.

        Normal people will just skip that bit and watch.

        People into incest will watch the first few lines.

        Unfortunately, I think a lot of porn makers have tried to split the baby and ended up alienating both audiences. People into incest don’t like the whole “step” thing, because it’s not real incest. And people who don’t like incest don’t like the “step” thing, because it’s too close to real incest.

        Essentially, I think porn producers think it’s a moneymaker, but it’s really just bad porn production.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Incest porn is so disgusting. I don’t care if it’s fictional, it’s still disgusting.

      I have no problem with porn in general, but I’m just glad I don’t know who gets off on the incest porn.

      • idiomaddict@feddit.de
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        10 months ago

        It’s 100% not my thing, but, y’know, neither is scat. I’m just assuming someone likes it because it’s everywhere. Another user suggested it’s to get people to pay for non-incest porn, which sounds possible, though the porn companies would have to be willing to collude about that. I’m not sure if that’s likelier than that people are just ashamed about it.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          I think a third option is that porn companies think it’s what people want whether it is or not and people consume it because it’s oversaturated the market.

          • The Uncanny Observer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            10 months ago

            That’s the thing about it though. It’s pretty easy to see how often a term is searched for, both through your own site and through Google, so these companies know people want it. In fact, Pornhub claims “step mom” is one of the highest searched terms on their site. How’s that for mommy issues.

            • AA5B@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              I’m sure they do a lot more tracking than that. It may also be that some of these niches are more likely to have “whales”. One whale might be more profitable than many/all freeloaders

              • Jarix@lemmy.world
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                9 months ago

                That’s a good point i haven’t heard anyone else mention. The combination of any style of porn with a built in plotline that connects to enough whales will probably proliferate damned quick one a few people get some success with it

            • Riven@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              9 months ago

              That’s the easy and probably true answer. They have tons of data, they know what people actively search for and how often. They wouldn’t make it if it wasn’t profitable.

          • idiomaddict@feddit.de
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            10 months ago

            That’s possible, though I gotta assume they use tracking. Actually, I wonder if it’s just as common outside of private mode

              • idiomaddict@feddit.de
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                10 months ago

                I mean, I just use a private window as a matter of course because I use the auto complete for common websites and I don’t want anything untoward showing up if I’m looking something up in front of people. I gotta assume that’s pretty common, no matter what people are into.

                • AA5B@lemmy.world
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                  9 months ago

                  Yes, the bigger problem is when people think a private window does more than forget their search history and cookies on their device