@terminus What do you think? Could this be an actual phenomena?
My personal thoughts is it might not be impossible, given how complex the brain is and how little we know of it. There is some potential reason for skepticism. If the part of the brain charged with regulating decision making is damaged or temporarily compressed by a tumor, someone’s pedophilia has an increased chance of becoming visible to the outside world.
I can’t say anyone wants to live with a ticking time bomb like a tumor living inside their heads, so they likely would want to undergo treatment for that.
I would be really interested to see if this is consistently found (and tested for) in future papers. Looks like this was based on a meta analysis, so hoping it points the way toward clearer definitions and understanding.
I don’t have any expert insight into this, but it seems plausible to me that there are (at least) two different etiological pathways for developing minor attraction. This could explain why some people insist that they became minor attracted because of an early childhood experience, even though this doesn’t square with the Cantor et. al. hypothesis about early brain development. This could also explain why minor attraction seems to be more of a sexual kink or fetish for some people, and more of an inborn attraction (that includes romantic interest) for others.
One thing I find suspicious is the over-emphasis on the word “behavior”, as opposed to an internal mental state, especially as the referenced papers seem to be in connection to forensic settings. If someone is beng diagnosed against their will, it is plausible, they will play dumb once any visible signs have vanished.
An alternate explanation to this might be that someone doesn’t come into contact with enough children for it to become apparent. A masculine sexuality might also be more inherently sexual than the feminine type.
I have certainly seen individuals saying this. It would be highly unusual for them to be lying in a private context for years at a time, or self-deluding themselves. I don’t think it’s connected to a brain injury but a trauma. The attraction patterns seem highly unusual, almost as if they’re not bound to any specific thing. Any random thing under the sun can trigger sexual arousal. Like a tree or violence. But, that is just one specific example I have seen. It is as if sexual arousal has become disconnected from stimuli in some way? Is that where the mysopeds come from?
The probablity of falling in love might be correlated with strength of attraction / exclusivity.