In my quest to learn more about studies concerning twins, my sister was kind enough to lend me her book Psychology Seventh Edition, by David G. Myers. I have found that there have been many striking instances where twins who were reared apart at birth, unknown about the existence of their counterpart, met up again and lived lives with daunting similarities.
An example of such are twins Jim Lewis and Jim Springer. These identical twin brothers were separated thirty-seven days after the day of their birth, and for 38 years lived unaware about having a brother. When Springer learned about his sibling, he set out to find him, only to find that like him, his twin brother who was coincidentally also named Jim had undergone a vasectomy, had a hobby of working in his wood shop, watched stock-car racing, and had a dog named Toy. Additionally, both commonly suffered from mid-day migranes, and Lewis named his son James Alan, while Springer named his James Allan.
This bizzare tale about identical twins reared apart is not the first of its kind, and it leads to the question as Myers puts it, "How much are our differences shaped by our differing genetic blueprints? To what extent are we formed by our upbringing...culture... and by our current circumstances?"
Myers, D. G. (2004). Behavior genetics: predicting individual differences. Psychology (pp. 108-110). New York, NY, USA: Worth Publishers.
Myers, D. G. (2004). Behavior genetics: predicting individual differences. Psychology (pp. 108-110). New York, NY, USA: Worth Publishers.
I had learned that twins have twin telepathy and it always interested me. This story of Jim Lewis and Jim Springer is beyond incredible. Its amazing how they both named their son the same name and that they have the same interests years later.
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