We're happy to
accept the idea that
physical characteristics,
like speed and
endurance, have a strong genetic
component.
Fast dogs are bred from
parents who are fast.
But when it comes
to us, to our personality
and the choices
we make in life, we
feel differently.
The
idea that we are
all running around a
track following
some predetermined
genetic script is repellent.
But some
twin stories really
make you wonder.
Now,
although the story
of Jenny and Margaret
is pretty surprising,
it's nothing
compared with the
astonishing story of
the Jim twins.
Meet Jim Lewis and Jim
Springer.
They have different
surnames and they
don't look much
alike but they are
identical twins.
The Jims were
separated as babies and
were reunited when
there were 39 years
old.
It was a very good
warm feeling you know?
It's like you had
something a favorite
of yours and you lost
it and you had to
have it.
You know?
And you finally
found it and that’s
a good feeling
to find that thing.
Well that's
the way it was with Jim.
Words came really
easy
When the Jims met
for the first time,
they discovered that
their lives were
peppered with
bizarre coincidences.
My
first wife's name was Linda.
My first
wife's name was Linda.
I divorced Linda and
married Betty.
And then my second wife’s
name was Betty, and now
I’m married to Sandy.
Well
she's kind of leery and hopes I
don't ever come across a Sandy.
I got
interested in
woodwork because my
father he was always
doing woodwork.
I've
been doing woodworking
for quite a long
time.
My first son’s name was James
Alan.
My first son is James Alan.
My
favorite beer was a
Miller Lite and I've
always smoked Salem cigarettes.
My
favorite beer is Miller Lite and
smoking, I smoke
Camel Lite but then I
smoke Salem Lite, too.
I switch back and
forth.
I was in the Sheriff's
Department in
Miami County as a deputy.
I was deputy
sheriff for seven years.
It's impossible
to fathom the odds
for some of the Jims
coincidences.
The information is simply
not available.
But for some of the habits
they shared we can
do the calculations.
When the two Jims met in 1979,
each was driving a Chevrolet.
And it
turns out, according
to the experts, that
the chances of any
one man driving a
Chevrolet then was 71.
Now, both men
driving a Chevrolet
would, therefore, be
49 to 1.
And they were also
both heavy smokers
and heavy drinkers.
And the chances of
any two men both
being heavy drinkers
would be about 35 to 1.
And at that
time in 1979, the
chance of any two men
both being heavy
smokers was about 300
to 1.
Well the
chances of each one
of these on its own
isn't really that
surprising, but if you
put them all
together, the overall
coincidence is really
rather amazing.
To
get the odds of all
the similarities
being down to pure
coincidence, you have
to multiply them together.
In betting
terms it's called
an accumulator, and
these figures give
you odds of half a
million to one against
two men sharing
those habits by pure chance.
Same sort of odds
I might get here on
any one dog winning
every race till the
end of the season.
It will be impossible
way to win 50 races.
And if you think it
could win 50 races,
I would offer you a
half a million to one.
Has that ever
happened?
It's never happened, no, and it
never would.
So you’d be safe
as a bookie here?
You would be completely safe.
If you take any two people and
look hard enough,
you'll always find some
similarities, but
the two Jims are so
alike
despite being brought
up by different
parents in different
homes that it's
hard to escape the
thought that they've
been shaped by forces deeper and
ultimately more
important than just
their home environment.
Psychologist Tom
Bouchard has met
more separated twins
than anyone else in
the world but the
Jims were his first.
They kicked off a 20
year study that's
changing the way we
think about being human.
The first week
we was there we answered
10,000 questions,
true or false and
multiplication.
We look
at their hobbies,
their the jobs they've
held, the personality
traits, their
abilities.
They took photos
of our ears, our
eyes, and they took
her fingerprints.
Their
height, their weight,
their brainwaves.
The
twins
IQ and personality profile was
strikingly similar.
It was as if they had
tested the same person twice.
The very first
morning we started to
work with them, one
of the twins put his
hand on the on the
table and I noticed
that he bit his nails.
I remember saying
to myself now isn't
that interesting?
Wouldn't it be
interesting if his twin
brother bit his nails?
And as I was
thinking that his
twin brother put his
hand on the table
and sure enough, they
were both nail biters,
and I said, you
know that's not on
any psychological
test or any psychological
characteristic.
the way you wear
your hat the way you
sip your tea the
gyms were only the
first of hundreds of
separated twins to
pass through bouchard's
hands fewer as
remarkable as them
in fact some were
quite dissimilar
there are not carbon
copies of each other
they each have the
differences are
great enough so they
each have their own
personality etc but
when you work with
them you can just see
the kind of similarity
in the underlying
template the way you
weigh the two twins
are like variations on a theme
the memory of all of
take that away from me away what
behavior geneticists
have discovered is
that most characteristics
that you can
measure reliably
with psychological
tests mental abilities
personality and
vocational interest
they all show
genetic influence in
the range of 40 to
50 percent but that's
typically what we
find oh this is common
level of genetic
influence across lots
and lots of traits
the way you hold
your knife the way we
danced over all the
twins who had grown
up in different homes
were just as alike
psychologically and
physically as the
twins who have grown
up together no they
come
and there was one
other quite startling
finding
probing beneath the
surface they found
the percentage of
fat in Margaret and
Jenny's bodies is
the same and their
bone density is
virtually identical
they are also both
intensely religious
God is love and God
showed his love for
us by sending his
only Son on into the
world deal with
Yun Jie light far
Liat bead and my Nene
Cal bill truth or
if from the day I
found out that I had a
twin sister I
prayed every day my
prayers were answered
God knew what I
was alone and evilly
he found me for
Jenny I really believe
this as identical
twins have a
similar intensity of
religious belief is
something that Tom
bouchard's twin studies
had consistently
confirmed we had
eventually published a
paper on it on we
call the heritability
of religiousness and we found a
significant genetic
effect now there are
people who just
find this hard to
believe
well I find it hard
to believe I didn't
believe it when we
started I wouldn't
have even studied it
what Boosh art has
concluded from 20
years work is that
genes are just as
important as
environment in shaping
personality and social
attitude and that
applies as much to
the rest of us as it
does to twins
no one really knows
how personality can
be laid down when
egg meets sperm
my own belief is that
what are inherited
are genes that create
structures in the
brain and these
structures in the brain
drive behavior
it's certainly
true there are some
aspects of personality
that you see from
a very early age so
early they seem to
be pre-programmed
English (auto-generated)