Doppelbanging: Learn more on this sexual practice, which is more common than you might think

Does making love to yourself sound strange? Yet it's a widespread sexual practice. It's called doppelbanging. It's a mania that consists in feeling attracted to someone who strongly resembles you. We tell you all about it.

What is doppelbanging?

The phenomenon is almost reminiscent of the myth of Narcissus, who fell in love with his own reflection. The term comes straight from the imagination of the LGBT+ community, who had fun contracting the verb 'to bang', meaning 'to make love to', and the German noun doppelganger, which refers to a look-alike.

Whether it's ethnicity, eye or hair color... Some couples could be mistaken for siblings. The Instagram account Siblings or dating has exploited the phenomenon by asking users to guess under their post whether the duos it features are a couple or not.

Read more:Does birth control affect who you're attracted to?

A widespread habit

But how can we explain this attraction to people who look like us? While doppelbanging may seem strange to us, it's hardly surprising to some experts.

What's familiar tends to attract and reassure us.

American psychologist Justin Lehmiller tells Time. In other words, it's a natural reaction... and one that challenges the old adage that opposites attract.

While the practice can occur in LGBT+ or heterosexual relationships, it is used pejoratively against queer people to deny their relationships and claim they are narcissists. So be careful with whom you use the term.

If you feel like it (and have the heart), you can try the experiment yourself by looking at your previous partners' faces again. You might be surprised!

Read more:Here's how many times you should have sex in a week for a healthy relationship

This article has been translated from Oh!MyMag FR.

Source used:

NEON - Sex: what is doppelbanging, this slightly megalomaniac sexual practice?

Instagram - Siblings or dating