Identical Strangers

Not sure if this should go under Health or Social Issues, as it spans both, but as mental health is involved, I chose Health.

I watched a very interesting documentary last night about identical triplets who were split up at birth.

I'd heard about these guys about a year ago, but the programme explained a lot more.

Basically, in the early 60s, identical triplets were put up for adoption in New York. They were separated at birth, and placed with three families, none of whom were told of the existence of the other two triplets.

By chance, two of them met at age 19, in 1980, when one of them started at a college that another of them had previously attended, and everyone was saying Hi Eddy! to him, although he wasn't Eddy, because he looked just like him.

Anyway, the two met up, and when their case was publicised, a third triplet saw them in the paper, and so all three were reunited.

However, it turned out they they had been part of a psychology experiment, where they, and some pairs of identical twins had all been separated at birth, and placed with different families, to research whether nature or nurture was the dominant factor in personality, character traits, etc.

They then discovered that the families chosen were ones that had distinctly different parenting styles. These were known because all three families had already had a girl adopted from the same agency, and so the parenting styles were known.

The three were then monitored at intervals as they grew. The adoptive parents never knew the details of the research being done, and the monitoring sessions were passed off as something trivial.

So, none of the families knew that the boys were one of triplets, and never knew that they had been selected on the basis of parenting style and because they already had an adoptive daughter. They never knew that they were part of a long-running experiment into the Nature v. Nurture hypothesis.

I won't go into any more details, as you may want to watch the programme on catch-up. It was very well made, imo.

Obviously, the ethics of playing with lives in this way was called into question, and the effects that the realisations and discoveries had on the triplets are full of pathos.

Re: Identical Strangers

If you want to watch it on catch-up, the details are:

Identical Strangers

Channel 4, screened Thursday 28/2/2019

It runs for two hours, but have no fear, it is riveting.

Re: Identical Strangers

I watched it (of course) with hardly a break. It was interesting but they didn't go into their differences sufficiently. The first one was differences in "work ethic" but little else. "IQ" being a big one but no mentioned.

Their taste in women was said to be the same. That is of course probably true of most 19 year old randy boys anyway.

Re: Identical Strangers

Yes, it was pointed out later in the programme that when twins or triplets etc. are reunited, they and the media tend to look for similarities, and a lot of the similarities may just be coincidental.

As you say, the real benefit would come from looking for the differences.

Although the research was begun in a time very different from now, it is sad that it was allowed to go on for so long.

So much was kept a secret, and the researchers knew they had to keep it all a secret, so I suppose they realised that what they were doing was unethical.

It would seem that some of the research papers have now been released, so I suppose some good might come of this very sad situation.

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I watched it today , very interesting . Sad that Eddie one of the triplets took his own life . Also the boys started to pull away from each other over time .

It was very wrong wasnt it , also it said that there were at least 4 adults who did not know they were part of the experiment .

I think they were trying to play at being God

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My feeling is that it was more an over-zealous desire to obtain some pure research, but where the research aim became more important than the ethics involved.

After all, the nature v. nurture thing had been debated for decades, and I expect they thought that if they could prove which was the dominant factor, the kudos would put them on a par with Freud, etc.

Unfortunately, they seemed to forget that there were human beings concerned, or else they thought it was of no matter, as the children were with loving families.

Their judgement was clouded, or maybe there was an element of the end justifying the means.

Purely objectively, the research model was extremely good; subjectively, though, it was appalling by today's standards.

Re: Identical Strangers

The Truman show

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I find the whole idea cruel and distasteful.

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I've not finished watching it yet, but I was surprised that none of the men looked a bit alike now IMO. Considering how similar they were when young (although not absolutely identical, I thought) this seemed strange.

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Things happen as you age, though, that can be partly due to how you have lived your life........ your experiences, your diet, illnesses, smoking, drinking, sun exposure, etc. can all affect how you look.

Even smallish differences in weight can show up more when you are older.

Plus, they were no longer attempting to look alike, so their hairstyles were different, their clothes etc., which helps to dispel the likenesses, and accentuate the differences.