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by the frequency he found in the U.K. Biobank, an anonymized research database: One in 7,000 people, according to his unpublished analysis, was born to parents who were first-degree relatives—a brother and a sister or a parent and a child.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.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    8 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
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      8 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
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        8 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
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          7
          ·
          8 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
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            edit-2
            8 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
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              8 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
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            8 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
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          8 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
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              8 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
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                3
                ·
                edit-2
                8 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