Sexual imprinting in humans in comparative perspective

Sexual imprinting is a specific form of learning, which was originally defined as the development of a cognitive model of sexual partner based on parental characteristics. This model subsequently influences the mate preferences in adulthood. Imprinting is characterized by difficult modifications of the acquired model and specific sensitivity for this type of learning in fixed period of ontogenesis. However, it remains an open question whether above described definition of imprinting can be applied to the development of the human mate preferences. Recently, it was pointed out that filial and sexual imprinting should be treated separately. However, many previous studies didn't reflect upon this distinction. Probably, function of filial imprinting is recognition of own species, the sexual imprinting affects preferences on sexual partner. Sexual imprinting could be also a mechanism of avoidance of in/outbreeding. Considering that in humans we can only speculate about the role of the parental imprinting, we will mainly focus on the critical review of studies on sexual imprinting. Results of some studies point out, that the effect of positive sexual imprinting can be modulated by a quality of the parent-offspring relationship. Apart from the positive sexual imprinting, we will further focus on negative..