# Twins separated at birth

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twins-separated-at-birth/71808>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 9, 2001, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twins-separated-at-birth/71808 "2001-07-09T11:29:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2001, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twins-separated-at-birth/71808/1 "2001-07-09T11:29:30Z")

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I’m sure this question must have come up before, but since the search function has been castrated, I can’t find a thing.

Are there any **true** stories of identical twins separated at birth, who discovered on reuinion that they had truly lived lives with **significant** parallel aspects (like choice of children’s names, marriage partners with the same name, etc.

I’ve heard of such stories, but I’ve also heard about investigations into them which discovered that they were bogus.

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**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\
**Post date:** [July 10, 2001, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twins-separated-at-birth/71808/2 "2001-07-10T04:00:21Z")

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Google, “twins separated birth parallel lives”, “identical twins parallel lives”. Not sure what you mean by stories like these being “bogus”. I’ve never heard of anyone “debunking” them.

[http://www.louisville.edu/~kmhall01/project2.html](http://www.louisville.edu/~kmhall01/project2.html)

> [@](#):
>
> There have been 121 references to sets of twins that were separated at birth for various reasons. Twins often have some of the same gestures and body mannerisms, so it is reasonable for twins reared apart to live similar lives due to these heretical circumstances. Even down to the tone and pitch in voice has been recorded as similar.

[http://www.oup-usa.org/isbn/0195138260.html](http://www.oup-usa.org/isbn/0195138260.html)

> [@](#):
>
> . Using eye-opening examples of genetically identical twins who, though raised in different families, have had remarkably parallel lives, the authors show that indeed roughly half of human behavior can be accounted for by DNA.

[http://pages.ivillage.com/lori.graham/lifewiththetwinswithlorigraham/id24.html](http://pages.ivillage.com/lori.graham/lifewiththetwinswithlorigraham/id24.html)

> [@](#):
>
> . Much is said about the famous Minnesota Twin Study, a study with great value to those interested in inherited versus environmental arguments of personality formation. The study focused on reared apart identical twins against a backdrop of various control groups, including fraternal twins reared apart. In most cases, identical twins reared apart showed the highest level of concordance in personality and life stories.

The Minnesota Twin [Family] study.  
[http://www.psych.umn.edu/psylabs/mtfs/](http://www.psych.umn.edu/psylabs/mtfs/)  
[http://www.psych.umn.edu/psylabs/mtfs/special.htm](http://www.psych.umn.edu/psylabs/mtfs/special.htm)

Sounds okay to me. 😕