What is a double banger? | POPSUGAR Love & Sex +2023

When your favorite game on the internet weighs on images that ask the question “siblings or dating”? you’re not alone. There is not just one whole Instagram account is dedicated to posting pictures of couples who look like they might be blood related, but there’s also a story about it in the latest season of The Sex Lives of College Girls.

On the show, created by Mindy Kaling, Leighton Murray (played by Reneé Rapp) tells her roommates that her type is basically herself: “a 5’6″ blonde woman from a cosmopolitan city — preferably New York.” And Social Media Users refer to people with this penchant for attraction as “double bangers.”

Corresponding Urban Dictionary, a double banger (or double banger as it is sometimes spelled) is “someone who is attracted to people who are similar to them in aesthetic or physical characteristics”. However, it’s more than just a funny name. The reason people want to date and have sex with people who look like themselves may be due to what is known as “assortative mating.”

Talia BombolaLMFT, says that assortative mating is the tendency of people to choose mates who have similar physical characteristics to theirs, such as eye color, hair color, height, etc. This would be like a tall person wanting to be with another tall person, or A person with blue eyes is attracted to another person with blue eyes.

The reason for this may have something to do with “survival of the family lineage,” Bombola says. In other words, it could be an unconscious human desire to continue your bloodline and create offspring that look like you.

But that’s not the only theory that could explain Doppelbanger. Beth Ribarski, PhD, a professor of interpersonal communication at the University of Illinois Springfield, says it might be because of the familiarity. “We’re more attracted to people who look familiar to us because that gives an inherent sense of security,” she says.

Especially in the LGBTQ+ community, dates have been known to call this the “twincest” or “clonecest” phase — especially if someone has recently come out, like Leighton did on the show. When you’re exploring new territory, it can be comforting to date and have sex with people who resemble you.

dr Ribarsky adds that “we’re more likely to be attracted to people with a similar level of attractiveness.” Depending on how attractive you are, you’re likely to choose someone who you think is on the same attraction scale as you – and of course, that could lead you to date people who unwittingly look like you.

Whatever the reason, there is no need to justify who you are attracted to and who you are not. Even if your significant other looks like your long-lost twin, attraction is in the eye of the beholder — just don’t be salty when your picture gets posted on the site Siblings or Dating? Instagram account. It’s fair game.