Sexual imprinting is the process that sees animals, including humans, choosing or rejecting mates based on the similarities or differences they share with their mothers, their fathers, and other prominent adults in their early lives. This process occurs in early childhood.
When we sexually imprint on someone, we create a mental model of an influential person’s characteristics and use that as a template for finding a mate. Potential mates similar to the person or people we’ve sexually imprinted on are pursued, while those that are very different are rejected.