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4 Magazines Delivered to Your Door

What Is a ‘Dopplebanger’ and Why Is It So Common?

The term describes couples who look alike, and research suggests we may be more attracted to familiar-looking faces than we realize.

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Have you ever seen a couple so eerily similar you had to do a double-take? Like they could actually be related? No shade. Just… “huh.”

That, in a nutshell, is a dopplebanger—a portmanteau of “doppelgänger” and the fairly self-explanatory act of banging. As in, someone who hooks up with or dates a person who looks so much like them, it’s hard not to try and figure it out. The term has its roots in queer dating culture, where same-sex couples are statistically more likely to resemble each other simply by virtue of sharing a gender—and, very often, a haircut, a wardrobe, and a general aesthetic. But straight couples aren’t off the hook either. The “Siblings or Dating” meme exists for a reason.

Broad City nailed this one. In Season 2’s “Coat Check,” Ilana meets........

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