Identical twins, Jim Lewis and Jim Springer, were separated 4 weeks after their birth and adopted by different families. When they finally met 39 years later in 1979, they were astonished by how surprisingly similar their lives had been.
Lewis did not know he had a twin brother until he was five years old though it never occurred to him to look for Springer until he was 38. Springer came to know about his brother when he was eight years old, but both he and his adoptive parents thought Lewis was dead. In 1977, Lewis decided to look for his brother and found the name Springer through a courthouse where he lived. They spoke on the phone and finally met in 1979.
Lewis and Springer lived only 45 miles apart in Ohio. They both married twice to women with the same names, named both their dogs “Toy,” and even gave their sons the same name.
Apart from having the same first name, both the twins have unbelievable similarities in their lives. They were six feet tall and weighed exactly 180 pounds. They both had a light blue Chevrolet which they drove to Pas Grille beach in Florida for a family vacation. They held a part-time sheriff post, were habitual fingernail biters, smoked Salem cigarettes, and had migraines. Both their first wives were called “Linda” and their second wives “Betty.” They also enjoyed leaving notes throughout the house for their wives. One of them named his son “James Allan” and the other named his son “James Alan.”
According to the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart, there were also several differences. While one wore his hair combed straight, hanging down over his forehead like the Beatles, the other swept it back and had sideburns. One expressed himself much better through speech while the other found it easier to do in writing. Though both of them married twice, one of them married a third time to a woman named Sandy.
In 1979, researchers at University of Minnesota conducted a study on 137 pairs of twins over a period of 20 years and found that genetics contributes significantly to a person’s personality than previously thought.
The Jim twins were one of the pairs that were studied by the researchers. Of the 137 pairs, 81 were identical twins, that is they were born from a single fertilized egg that split into two, and 56 were fraternal twins, twins born from two different eggs fertilized by two different sperms. The findings of Minnesota study also launched a debate on effects of nature versus nurture on a child. Another study by Science journal found that about 70 percent of IQ variation among twins is genetic while only 30 percent was environmental. Identical twins raised apart were also found more likely to be either religious or not religious.