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Pick your favorite celebrity.

Is it the sage, yet sexy-type like Harrison Ford or Helen Mirren, or do you go for the young and dangerous-type like Leonardo DiCaprio or Carmen Electra? Who you consider to be your “favorite” celebrity reveals a great deal about the “type” of person you go for.

The “why?” behind that sense of attraction is the real reason you’re reading this article. Here are two important factors that help explain why we tend to go for the same “type” of mate.

What was your childhood like?
A lot of who we like depends, believe it or not, on what we did (or didn’t experience/have) as a kid. If you missed out on something in your youth (like money), you may find yourself continually attracted to people with money. It’s a natural “I deserve what I missed out on” feeling. A lot of people have this one.

Others (typically women) may have had a father with few or no parenting skills as they grew up. In selecting a mate, they may find themselves going for older, dominant, “fatherly” figures. Men whose mothers were too overbearing may find themselves attracted to women who are more submissive, less bossy—you get the idea.

Another important thing to mention regarding childhood is what we were brought up to like (or dislike). Maybe our mothers influenced us since we were toddlers to believe that tall, dark, and handsome men were the way to go. Whatever the case, don’t forget the importance that childhood has on affecting who we are attracted to as adults.

Can’t forget the genes
Not only do our genes often determine what our bodies look like, but they also are the basis of our mental make-up. Some of us are very smart, for example. Other people, to put it nicely, not so much.

While some of us are emotionally fragile and may take months, even years, to get over tough life experiences, others can take emotional blows without a second thought, bouncing back in a matter of days. Why is there such a difference between us? It’s all written in our genes, folks.

By that same token, genes can greatly influence who we’re attracted to. Some men have a natural feeling of attraction to women with curvy bodies; maybe you go crazy over a guy with a hairy chest, like Tom Selleck. A lot of these attractions can be passed on genetically from our parents, and no matter how hard you may try to be attracted to someone for other reasons (such as being mentally or intellectually on the same plane as the other person), you can’t force yourself to be attracted to someone you’re not.

The human within us, from thousands of years ago, just won’t let us do it.

And let us not forget those snarky pheromones
Lastly, an interesting study was recently released where researchers discovered a “secret sex nerve” that they say may control who you’re sexually attracted to. This olfactory nerve may be the route through which pheromones are processed.  Pheromones, as you know, are substances that potential partners can sense— which emanate from your body.

“Nerve ‘O’ has endings in the nasal cavity, but the fibers go directly to the sexual regions of your brain. Because Nerve O bypasses the olfactory cortex, it does not register a conscious smell, but rather identifies chemical sexual cues,” says Dr. Laura Berman, director of the Berman Center in Chicago, who made this discovery.

“Research has shown that the unconscious cues processed by Nerve ‘O’ can make or break a relationship. For instance, you are more likely to be attracted to people whose scent is dissimilar to your own. Couples who have high levels of chemicals in common are more likely to encounter fertility issues, miscarriage, and infidelity,” she explains.

Certain people may go crazy for one certain type of pheromone, while others are repelled by it (this is especially true with people you encounter who have similar genetic makeup). But as it stands, the pheromone phenomenon is still very mysterious to doctors.