What identical twins separated at birth teach us about genetics - BBC REEL

It's one of biology's biggest questions: is it nature or nurture that makes us who we are? Now, thanks to twin studies, scientists like Dr Nancy Segal may just have some answers.

By studying identical twins separated at birth scientists can gain unique insight into just how much our genes influence our behaviour, personality and traits.

Produced by Melissa Hogenboom
Animation by Stefania Sottile
Edit by Pomona Pictures

#bbcreel #bbc #bbcnews

[rachelhope]

My husband who passed in 1999 at age 38 found both his birth parents in his early 20’s. I was amazed when we met his father who walked with the same strut as my husband. It was so strange to see how mannerisms and movements were so similar. Even the way they laughed. My husband was most passionate about the ocean and loved fishing. He always caught the most fish, We found out his birth family was from Prince Edward Island and were fisherman. My husband has been gone for 23 years now and just a year ago his birth father passed. I feel so blessed to have his family and his half sisters call me their sister in law.

[Koakoa]

I adopted my sisters daughter when she was 4 years old. She was taken from her mother at 2. I was absolutely shocked how much she talked and acted like my sister as she grew up. Behaviors I do not have but my sister did, she would exhibit. Amazing how much of us is genetic and we do not even know it.

[ColleenMarble]

When I was in college, I took a sociology class. The professor's identical twin brother also taught sociology at another university in my town. Halfway through the semester, they switched classes to show the students how alike and different they were in their approach to teaching as well as their personal preferences and opinions. Nature vs. nurture on full display. It was an interesting experience as a student.

[Rocadamis]

Another important factor in twins is how DIFFERENT they are when raised in the same household environment compared with those who were separated at birth. Indeed, separated twins show GREATER similarities than do siblings in the same environment. The reasons for this are most likely due to a psychological need to define one's own UNIQUENESS within the family dynamic, and therefore, these twins will gravitate to expressing and defining themselves as UNIQUE from their twin (especially if identical). On the other hand, separated twins do not have the influence of these psychological dynamics to hamper their natural inclinations, and thus we see greater similarities that do indeed appear to be genetically based.

[paulhall]

I'm an identical twin. We were raised together till we were 19 and then have lived the rest of our lives apart. (We're now 73 years old, next week!) We both married in the same year, both to girls from immigrant families (we are sixth generation Australians) We both had two children, a girl first and then a son. We both talk the same, think the same, have very similar interests and frequently finish each other's sentences in exactly the same words and phrasing as the other would have, even if in conversations in which we have no previous background.
And, of course, our children look like brothers and sisters!

[randyc]

My friend was an identical twin separated at birth who found his twin in their early to mid 30s and both participated in a twin study. They both married women with the same name, named their dogs the same, liked fishing, hunting and photography and got divorced a few years after finding each other because they started spending so much time together.

[favforsue]

My husband passed away when my daughter was 2 years old. I’m always surprised how similar she is to him. As a matter of fact, my husband’s birth father (did not raise him) was a self taught artist. My husband took up painting a couple of years before his death and he was a natural, and my daughter is also a visual artist. Three generations that did not grow up together, sharing the same love for art.

[pinzeddproductions]

Very interesting to have it shown that Genes provide a Probablistic, not Deterministic, outcome. It gives hope to those of us who want to be different than our parents. For some of us it may be more of a struggle, but it may be possible.

[LoveYah]

I went to high school with these two boys, I thought they were twins but it turned out they were first cousins and their mothers were identical twins. Crazy how genetics work!

[mechelledesigns]

My father died when I was sixteen years old. My youngest son’s mannerisms and body frame are a lot like my dad. He sleeps with his knee up sometime just like my dad. He decided to play in the marching band and play the French horn. My dad played the French horn and was in the military marching band. I am simply amazed at how similar he is without ever having met him.

[uekiguy]

Fascinating. It would have been interesting if the video were to include some real-life examples of these separated twins and how they compare.

[erin]

This was a great video but the comments section is so intriguing! I love reading all these personal accounts of their experiences ❤️

[keifer]

My mother and father both had twins, father's was identical, mother's was fraternal. My father and his brother lead differnt types of lives, my uncle was carefree, a real extrovert. I don't think he ever had a job, never married or had kids. He hustled mostly, lived with a series of girlfriends until later in life. My dad was the polar opposite. Introverted, not many friends. Military after highschool, active duty during the Korean conflict. After the military he immediately got a good job and started a family. They had almost nothing in common but they were each other's best friend. First thing my dad did when he woke up most morning's was call his brother or vice versa. They went out together, took care of each other. I loved being around them, they were so good to each other, thick as thieves regardless of their differences.

My mom and her twin basically despised each other their entire lives. It was kinda sad, we never got to know our aunt really. I don't think she cared to know us either and we were ok with it as we witnessed and experienced some of her nastiness personally. It was a weird contrast between the 2 sets of twins to experience at the same time.

When my dad died his brother was devastated and seeing my dad's face alive and dead at the same time still haunts me. He lived another 10 years my uncle. I miss them both.

When my aunt died my mom mentioned it in passing weeks after the event, she didn't care and to this day speaks ill of her sister which is sad but my mom was horribly bullied and abused by her so I understand.

[izya]

Me and my identical twin got separated at 1 and a half year. At the time of separation we both looked like exactly the same person. Same weight, same height same everything. We got to see each other once in two weeks or so... As we grew, we began to look a bit different. Like siblings that look alike and not identical twins. We both grew up in totally different environments and i think that was what changed us. Good news is me and my twin got to finally live together at around age 20 till we got married 5 years later and are now living happily with our husbands.

Note: an extraordinary thing we got to experience is having our first menstruation on the same day! We both were late bloomers and had it so much later than our classmates.

[needlestick]

I have a twin aunt and uncle on my mom's side, but what fascinated me most was my grandpa and my younger brother. They have the same walk, mannerisms and even the same smell. Everytime my brother goes for vacation to the grandparents, he said he always felt like home because of the scent -it was his scent. Genes do get expressed like that, skipping a generation, amazing.

[marcochimio]

Starting when I was 8, I begged my parents (biological Mom and non-biological Dad) to let me start playing drums, which I've done in some form since I was 10. When I was 30, I met my biological father for the first time. He told me that he used to play drums (Mom didn't know) and his father was a drummer with his own band. I knew that perfect pitch had some genetic component, but it never occurred to me that an affinity for rhythm would have a similar component.

[johnthefinn]

I grew up with identical twins - my older brothers. I never had the slightest difficulty telling them apart. In fact, I was about 13 years old before I realized they were identical, a fact I surmised from my friends' comments. I can even distinguish between them in baby pictures taken years before I was born.
I can always tell identical pairs apart - sometimes when their own parents can't.

[wyominghome]

My mother always had the most beautiful, flowing handwriting - like something you'd see in a book. She always attributed it to having gone to a Catholic girls school when she was 10-11 years old. But my sister, who never went to a Catholic school and was never taught writing by my mother has the identical handwriting. Whenever I saw it on an envelope I could never tell if it was my mother or my sister. Odd.

[Celesteparadise]

I met my mother @ 16. I went to visit her and all of my maternal relatives in BC province (Canada 🍁).
I looked so much like her and had similar nervous ticks. I will never forget the joy and relief of being with people that looked like me for the first time in my life. I know it shouldn't matter but it does ; people notice when u don't match the family you're with - even physical similarity. I felt so safe being with other green-eyed blondes.
My family I grew up with were all black hair and hazel-brown eyes, and friends of ours always remarked that I didn't look like them. And like many parents in this situation, they didn't have a plan for when or what to tell me, so they just didn't.
And so I grew up my whole life thinking something was very wrong with me bcuz like the lady in this video says, the true discrepancies were actually all the mannerisms, interests and abilities I manifested that differed drastically with theirs, including intelligence. I turned out to have an IQ of 138 and it made sense when my biological mom who's IQ was in the high 140's turned out to be a self-taught musician like me!
Growing up, my other mom hated creativity and there was no piano or instruments in the house. Her own son was an athlete and the house revolved around that.
But u know what? Even as a timid kid who thought all her inclinations were wrong, I was so compelled to play music that I learned the piano all by myself by sneaking into the choir room after hours for 3 years.
Of course I found out about my real mom on accident but then I got to go meet her and then everything about my personality, interests and creativity and intelligence finally made sense!
It's amazing how strong your genetics actually are in affecting your decisions and personality.

[terrapreta]

From a psychological perspective, it might also be interesting to study identical twins reared together and the ways that the same environment can cause divergent personality traits. I've often wondered how our same family environment caused my identical twin sister to respond and develop into the person she is today who is so different from me.