What We've Learned From Twin Studies

When you think about how your life turned out, you might wonder how it happened. How much can you attribute to, or maybe blame on, your family? An awful lot of it. You probably resemble your siblings in appearance, health, temperament, and psychological well-being. But is that because you carry the same genes, or because the same parents raised you? The question of nature vs. nurture has been around for a long time. That's why scientists are so interested in twin studies. Identical twins have the same genes, so there's a factor you can control for. But most twins also have the same environment, too. 

However, throughout the 20th century, scientists have been able to study the phenomena of twins raised separately, which opened a new door to answering the question of nature vs. nurture. From these studies, it turns out that genetics has more say in some factors, while environment is more important for other facets of life. This video from AsapSCIENCE shares some of the findings of those studies, but it doesn't address the disturbing scenario that made them possible. Why have there been so many identical twins raised apart? It's already a tragedy when a child cannot be raised by their biological parents, but being separated from your identical twin only adds more unnecessary trauma. How does finding that out later in life affect the studies?  

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