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No one is born wise.

Shit, I have an alt guys. Sorry. Forgot to turn that account off.


Nevermind.

It's because natural selection is about genes, not organisms. We are merely vehicles for the propagation of our genes.

Also it favors the more recessive phenotypes (genes that are expressing themselves as traits) over the more dominant phenotypes, who are in turn favored over genotypes (genes that are not expressing themselves as traits).

This is especially more important for males as they can use the traits of their offspring to determine that they are indeed their biological progeny. Females are the sex that carries the child and gives birth to them, so they know it's theirs biologically, it's an advantage the female has over the male in that they are far less likely to raise a changeling child under the mistaken impression that it is their own.

So basically you are programmed by natural selection to seek out partners who look similar to you, as that increases the chance for your offspring to inherit more of your genes, and particularly more of the genes which you evolved to consider more important.

But, if the partner you choose to mate with is too genetically similar to you, it means that there is an increased chance for the genotypes that both of you share to express themselves in the offspring.

This could be bad because genotypes, being not typically expressed as traits, are also not as prone to being subjected to the rigors of natural selection, which means they can code for traits that are very detrimental when it comes to the chances of reproducing for any organism they create, not just directly but also by negatively impacting them in virtually any aspect of living.

Incest doesn't produce defects, it takes the latent defects within the DNA of the parents and gives them a greatly increased chance of manifesting in their children. So we should avoid it if possible.

Humans, and indeed all living things on Earth, tend to be beings of middles, seeking not too much or too little in any area, but hitting that sweet spot which is most conducive to our survival and propagation. Here we want similar genes in our lovers, but also enough genetic variation to prevent our worst genes from manifesting as traits in our children.

So what does the human mind do? A "good enough" solution, evolution is the survival of the fittest, not of the strongest or even of the best, it favors merely the best fit out of all the competition. The solution is as follows:

The people you encounter most during your formative years are likely to be closely related to you, so your mind will rule them out as sexual partners, additionally, anyone of the opposite sex who spends too much time around you without presenting themselves as a sexual option to you, is also assumed to be related and ruled out (that's the reality of the friendzone, she's actually being told to consider you like a brother by her mind because of millions of years of selective pressures).

It's not a perfect solution, like all psychological systems there are blindspots where it malfunctions, such as encountering a sibling for the first time after both of you had reached adulthood, your brain is not going to consider them as a sibling but as a very viable sexual partner, even conscious awareness of your relation isn't going to suppress those attractions coming from your unconscious mind.

With blue eyes?