Robert Winston_The Jim Twins

From the Secret Life of Twins, BBC 1999

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

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