The research I dug through suggested it was slightly different, off by one year or so, with the window for learning grammar structures being slightly younger than sexual imprinting. It is strange to think, that our minds are learning sexual cues long, long before puberty.

There’s also an argument to be made that genetics play a strong role. I can see it being a bit like mental illness, the idea that different components of sexual desire have different rates of heritability. Last I checked, the heritability of Borderline Personality Disorder was 53%, while the heritability for Bipolar Disorder was between 87% and 93%.

It seems to me, the three factors that shape our sexual desires are genes, imprinting, and later experiences (nurture). Imprinting certainly handles most, if not all the visual cues that we find ourselves drawn to. Genes likely dominate in the realm of sociability, the desire for one or multiple partners, etc., the things that are intangible, while nurture continues to shape our experiences and desires throughout life, making them fluid rather than static and unchanging.

Thanks for reading as always. I hope you took something of value from this. :)

Here’s a bit of very, very interesting research that you might find fascinating.