![]() ![]() The triplets with their adoptive brothers and sisters. They appeared on TV, answering questions in unison became celebrities on the New York club scene had cameo roles in Madonna’s 1985 film Desperately Seeking Susan and eventually opened their own restaurant, called Triplets. Only their close genetic heritage could explain their powerful similarities, it was argued – a notion that the brothers milked to its limit. Robert’s parents were prosperous, Eddy had grown up in a middle-class suburb, and David’s parents lived in working-class Queens. Yet their childhoods had been very different. All liked the same films, smoked the same cigarettes (Marlboros) and had been wrestlers at college. When they were reunited, they not only looked like doppelgangers, they displayed an uncanny number of shared habits. The vital point that affects the current nature-nurture debate and which is outlined in Three Identical Strangers is the seemingly intense impact of genetic influences on Eddy, Robert and David. “The film is particularly well-timed, when genetic essentialism is on the rise and divisiveness and polarisation is sweeping the globe,” he said. ![]() In these circumstances, this month’s release of Three Identical Strangers, which won a special award for documentary storytelling at the Sundance film festival this year, could not have been more opportune, said medical historian Professor Nathaniel Comfort, of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. At the same time, there has been the attempted hijacking, by the far right, of the findings of modern genetics to support their own extreme views. On one hand, scientists are launching new onslaughts in the battle over the influence of nature versus nurture in human affairs. But most importantly of all, the documentary is a timely illustration of the unexpected ways that genes and life events interact to shape us.Īnd that is crucial – for once again genetics is back in the news. It is also a poignant tale of lives reunited. The story behind the triplets’ separation and subsequent reuniting forms the dark core of Three Identical Strangers, which emerges as a tale of grotesque medical manipulation that today would have led to prosecutions for malpractice. They were the same person trebled, as one commentator put it. They possessed the same complements of genes and, as young adults, they were indistinguishable. “My God, they are coming out of the woodwork,” she complained.Įddy, Robert and David were adopted by different families when they were babies. So he contacted Eddy’s adoptive mother, who was stunned to come across, in only a few weeks, two young men who were identical in appearance to her son. Robert and Eddy also looked astonishingly like him. One reader – David Kellman, a student at a different college – was particularly interested. Their story made headlines across the US. Each knew he had been adopted but neither was aware he had a twin. ![]() They were identical twins, a fact swiftly confirmed from hospital records. The two young men had the same facial features, the same heavy build, the same dark complexions, the same mops of black curly hair – and the same birthday: 12 July 1961. doi:10.1093/med-psych/9780190227074.003.“As I reached out to knock on the door, it opened – and there I am,” says Robert, recalling his first meeting with Eddy in the forthcoming documentary Three Identical Strangers. Using Basic Personality Research to Inform Personality Pathology. The principles of personality trait development and their relation to psychopathology. Age differences in the Big Five across the life span: evidence from two national samples. Heritability estimates of the Big Five personality traits based on common genetic variants. Do personality traits matter? Exploring anti-drug behavioral patterns in a computer-assisted situated learning environment. Is temperament determined by genetics? MedlinePlus. A reevaluation of the 1990 “Minnesota study of twins reared apart” IQ study. Uncovering the complex genetics of human character. The Wiley Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Personality stability from age 14 to age 77 years. Harris MA, Brett CE, Johnson W, Deary IJ. ![]() Are traits useful? Explaining trait manifestations as tools in the pursuit of goals. ![]()
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