Before reading I want everyone to answer this question: How similar do you think identical twins separated at birth could grow up to be just from their genetics? If you answered, “depends where they were raised and whom they were raised by” you are wrong.
At the University of Minnesota a team of researchers led by Thomas Bouchard, conducted multiple studies over the course of twenty years on 137 pairs of twins to answer this question. Their studies consisted of 81 pairs of identical twins (twins who developed from one egg that split in two), and 56 pairs of fraternal twins (twins who developed from two eggs fertilized by two different sperm). As a result of the Minnesota study more than 170 individual studies have been conducted focusing on the different medical and psychological characteristics of twins. In these studies for identical twins they found that happiness and well-being had a 50 percent genetic influence, dental and gum health had strong genetic influence, similar correlations between genetics and IQ, and they found that genetics had a stronger influence on sexual orientation in male twins than in female twins (According to a study of 4,000 pairs of twins in Sweden). Another thing I found really interesting that they discovered was that when studying photos of the twins, they saw that identical twins would stand the same way, meanwhile fraternal twins would stand different.
At the end of all of these studies when researchers finally reunited the twins they conducted yet another study, surveying twins about how close they felt to their “newfound” sibling. 80 percent of the identical twins surveyed said they felt closer with their newfound twin than they did to their best friends! Which “suggests a strong genetic component in the bond between identical twins.”
“The Minnesota studies gave scientists a new understanding of the role of genes and environment on human development, Segal said.“ The scientists performed observational studies on the 137 pairs of twins and found evidence that suggests that certain traits such as IQ, sexual orientation and well-being are mainly hereditary factors. I can’t think of any other way of performing this study without it being unethical.
I couldn’t believe all of these similarities were caused simply by genetics so I did a little more research and found the Jim Twins, who were actually part of this study. They had bizarre similarities. For example, they drove the same kind of car, both married twice, had dogs with the same name and had the same favorite beer.. just to name a few. Its so interesting to see a real life example of this study and how similar the twins actually end up being with out ever meeting! I suggest everyone follow the link over to their page and read about the Jim twins. You’ll be mind-blown about what genetics can cause!
How would you guys feel if you found out that you had an identical twin that liked all the same things you did?
Fun fact: “One pair of female twins in the study were separated from each other at 5 months old, and weren’t reunited until age 78, making them the world’s longest separated pair in Guinness World Records.”
Work Cited:
http://www.livescience.com/47288-twin-study-importance-of-genetics.html
http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/longest-separated-twins
I don’t know how I messed up my link but….. this was it: http://sites.la.utexas.edu/twinproject/facts-and-figures/
This is a very intriguing blog. I followed the link and the statistics were mind blowing. I’ve always been somewhat interested in this topic because I knew and was friends with a lot of twins in my high school, and it is cool to observe how similar they can be without them even realizing it. Some more interesting <a href=http://sites.la.utexas.edu/twinproject/facts-and-figures//a> is that African Americans have the highest rate/chance of twins in America with 36.8 in 1000.