Twin Studies

1980 would change the lives of Robert Shafran, Edward Galland, and David Kellman forever. Each had been living separate lives as young men growing up in New York during the 1970s. When a case of mistaken identity led Shafran to Galland, a beautiful story started to emerge of long-lost twins, each adopted to different parents in their infancy. As news of the remarkable story spread, the mother of David Kellman also noticed. Could it be that the story of long-lost twins was actually one of long-lost triplets? The story was an instant success, and the young brothers enjoyed their new found fame . . . for a while. But secrets, buried for years, threatened their joyful reunion. To date, nothing has captured the imagination of psychological researchers quite like identical siblings. Are we products of our genetics or of our environments and life experiences? How does our DNA and our environment interact together to make up who we are? What are some of the unethical and horrifying ways identical siblings have been used in the name of research?

Learn more about the documentary Three Perfect Strangers here

Read Lawrence Wright’s New Yorker article Double Mystery here

Learn more about the Nazi twin experiments here and here

Visit the CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center here

Find the Meta-analysis of the heritability of human traits based on fifty years of twin studies here

Learn more about the Minnesota Twin Study of Twins Reared Apart study here

Read more about the American Medical Association’s opinion on the release of data from unethical experiments here