Just a few years ago there was a huge fad on television. People would find identical twins who had been separated at birth and adopted separately, and reunite them.
These identical twins were raised in totally different families with totally different Family Values. Some were raised by poor, uneducated families. Their twins were raised by well-to-do, highly educated families.
Some were raised by Catholics. Some were raised by Jews. Some were raised by atheists and others by Protestants.
It was GREAT television. Most of the identical twins didn’t even know they had a twin.
Identical twins have EXACTLY the same genes. They even have the same fingerprints. When the twins met for the first time they discovered there were incredible similarities between them, no matter how different the families were in which they were raised.
Identical twins separated at birth commit the same crimes at the same age. They prefer the same toothpaste, they marry similar women at a similar age.
And on and on and on.
Same jobs. Same intelligence. Same, same, same. On the television shows the identical twins who had recently discovered each other would talk about how the other twin “is me.” It was fascinating.
I saw this this fad of identical twins end with a sudden crash.
A man had gotten together identical TRIPLETS, none of whom was aware of the other. It was such a big deal it was on Phil Donahue.
The whole thing was going great until Phil Donahue dropped a bomb on the guy he was interviewing, the man who had gotten the triplets together. Donahue said, “Doesn’t this favor those who believe that heredity is more important than environment?”
The guy he was interviewing, the guy who had found the identical triplets, looked like he had been slapped in the face.
He knew very well that “heredity” means “Hitler.” Donahue had just accused him of being anaziwhowantstokillsixmillionjews.
“No, no, no,” he said. The fact that identical twins raised in completely different families and totally different families were just alike didn’t mean heredity was important.
On that day the identical twin fad ended totally. Before that show there had been at least two dozen national shows about identical twins being reunited. After Donahue reminded the media what that identical twin stuff meant, there was not one more “identical twins reunite” show. The ones already scheduled were suddenly cancelled.
In my book I talk about the greatest identical twins study ever made. A thousand identical twins raised in totally different environments from the time they were less than two weeks old were compared.
In Russia, the environments that children are raised in are VERY different. But the twins were astoundingly alike in every way: crime, talents, intelligence tests.
Same, same, same.
This study was conducted by the Medicogenetical Institute of Moscow.
Heredity is HERESY to the political left.
The Medicogenetical identical twins came out in 1934, when Stalin ruled Russia. Stalin wiped them out. The Institute ceased to exist. The head of the Medicogenetical Institute “confessed his ideological error” and was shot.
All identical twin studies come out that way. So no one talks about them.
“Your life,” they say, “is shaped by your family values and how you were raised.”
That is Gospel on the political left. That is Gospel on the political right.
It’s not true.
#1 by Mike on 10/28/2004 - 11:27 pm
Fascinating, a study of this would be very enlightening.
#2 by Mike on 10/28/2004 - 11:39 pm
an article on CNN about identical twins scoring identical SAT’s.;
CNN.com – Identical twins score perfect SATs
#3 by Jay on 10/29/2004 - 2:35 am
I’m sure that Bob has read Philippe Rushton’s “Race, Evolution, and Behavior”. There have been fascinating enlightening studies on this.
#4 by Bob Whitaker on 10/29/2004 - 12:05 pm
I know Rushton but I haven’t read his book.
#5 by Bedford on 10/29/2004 - 8:56 pm
Well, I know that the “Snake” newspaper would publish on its front page any black twins study that purported to show environment was far more important than heredity. In fact, the “Snake” would probably publish a fraudulent study. It has been weeks now and no front page story about Strom’s illigetimate negro daughter. What gives? I play a game of counting pictures of blacks and wites on the front page of the “Snake”. It seems to me that the no. of blacks that appear is inordinate in relationship to the no. of blacks in the population. The “Snake” is a blatant propaganda rag in my opinion and doesn’t even have the guts to admit it. How’s that for expressing freedom of speech, Bob?
#6 by Bob Whitaker on 10/29/2004 - 9:44 pm
“The snake” newspaper, indeed!
You owe an apology to the entire reptile family!
#7 by Elizabeth on 10/30/2004 - 5:14 pm
I’d wondered what had happened to those stories.
I’ve inadvertently landed in one of these heredity-is-a-slap-
in-the-face situations: I have been diagnosed with something
that has only been recently recognized as a medical problem.
It is genetic. It is not life threatening. However, getting
diagnosed and treated can dramatically improve one’s quality
of life. I have some relatives who apparently have this
condition.
I can’t claim that I’m only trying to be helpful in doing
this, because the relative who most needs to get checked
has chronic problems about dropping the ball — and I’m
the only one in her family who insists that she needs
to follow through on things. (I was a secretary for
several years, and it was harder for me than for
normal people to do follow through.)
Elizabeth
#8 by Victor Hodson on 11/03/2006 - 7:55 am
Bob,
I bought and enjoyed your book as being the kind of thing that I would have liked to have written to get a lot “off my chest”.
It is fine to rant but please be more accurate with your facts. A Google search on “Medicogenetical Institute of Moscow identical twin studies” yielded three hits; two attributable to you and one of no real significance. A search on “Institute of Genetics, Academy of Science, Moscow identical twin studies” found a signifcant number of references.
You or your editor could have and should have done the search. Alright, you didn’t have an editor. You should have: they pay for themselves and help maintain credibility.
Regards aqnd have a nice day,
Victor