TWIN LIVES

It is well known that twins are closer to each other than most brothers and sisters – after all, they probably spend more time with each other. Parents of twins often notice that they develop special ways of communicating: they invent their own words and one can often finish the other’s sentence. In exceptional circumstances, this closeness becomes more extreme: they invent a whole language of their own, as in the case of Grace and Virginia Kennedy in the USA, who communicated so successfully in their own special language that they did not speak any English at all until after they started school. In Britain there was the famous case of the ‘silent twins’, June and Jennifer Gibbons, who were perfectly capable of normal speech, but for years refused to talk to anyone but each other.

However, these special relationships are the result of lives spent almost entirely in each other’s company. What happens when twins do not grow up together, when they are separated at birth for some reason? Are they just like any other strangers, or are there still special bonds and similarities between them? Professor Tom Bouchard, of the University of Minnesota, set out to find the answer to this question. He traced sixteen pairs of twins, who were adopted by different families when they were babies, and often brought up in very different circumstances. Each twin was then interviewed about every small detail of their life.

The results of this research make surprising reading. Many of the twins were found to have the same hobbies or phobias, many have suffered the same illnesses, and some have even had the same type of accident at the same point in their lives. When they arrived in Minneapolis, many were dressed in very similar clothes. One pair of middle-aged women arrived for their first meeting in identical dresses, another pair were wearing identical jewellery. A large number of the twins have had children at almost the same times; sometimes they have even given them the same names. Terry Connolly and Margaret Richardson, British twins who didn’t meet until they were in their mid-thirties, found that they had been married on the same day of the same year at almost the same time of the day. Both women have also had four children, all of more or less the same age.

But the most incredible similarities are to be found in the case of Jim Springer and Jim Lewis from Ohio in the USA. The story of the ‘Jim Twins’ made headline news across the USA, and they even appeared on national television. Born to an immigrant woman in 1939, and adopted by different families at birth, both babies were named Jim by their new parents. This was just the first in an almost unbelievable series of coincidences:

• Both grew up with an adopted brother called Larry.
• As children both had dogs called Toy.
• At school both boys liked maths and disliked spelling.
• Since leaving school, both men have worked in the fast-food restaurants, as petrol station attendants and as deputy sheriffs.
• Both men have been married twice, first to a woman called Linda and then to a woman called Betty.
• They both named their first son James Alan.
• Both suffer from the same kind of tension headaches.
• Both have had two heart attacks.
• Their homes and gardens are remarkably similar.
• They drink the same brand of beer and chain-smoke the same brand of cigarettes.

But what can be the explanation for these remarkable similarities? Is it all pure coincidence, or is the explanation in some way genetic? Research into the lives of twins is forcing some experts to admit that our personalities may be at least partly due to ‘nature’. On the other hand, analysts are also anxious to emphasize that incredible coincidences do happen all the time, not just in the lives of twins.

Discuss the following questions:

1. What did Professor Tom Bouchard want to find out? How did he do this?

2. Give some examples of the kinds of similarities Professor Bouchard found between the Minnesota twins.

3. Why do you think the ‘Jim Twins’ became famous in the USA?

4. How do scientists explain the similarities between the sets of twins separated at birth?

5. Which of the coincidences described in the text do you find most surprising?

6. Do you agree that personality is partly genetic? Can you see any similarities between the personalities of the people in your family? Are there any important differences?

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