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Extreme Lookalikes May Share Much Deeper Ties Than We Ever Realized
Science Alert ^ | 24 August 2022 | By CARLY CASSELLA

Posted on 08/23/2022 12:02:46 PM PDT by Red Badger

Lookalike People In Experiment

Look-alikes in the study. (François Brunelle) It appears there's more to a doppelgänger than meets the eye.

DNA analyses of 16 look-alike couples have revealed some unrelated people with super similar faces also have similar heights, weights, habits, and behaviors.

Human resemblance, it would seem, is more than just skin deep.

In the study, 3 different facial recognition algorithms were tasked with scoring the likeness of 32 look-alikes pairs; half were classified as doppelgängers by all 3 algorithms. Researchers then conducted genetic analyses and found 9 pairs of "ultra" look-alikes.

Together, these super doppelgängers share 19,277 common genetic variations in 3,730 genes, many of which are to do with body and facial traits.

Their personal questionnaires suggest they share even more than that.

Some lifestyle features, like smoking habits, weight, and level of education, were also associated with many look-alike pairs.

Admittedly, the sample size is small, but the results, according to the authors, are "striking".

"These findings do not only provide clues about the genetic setting associated with our facial aspect, and probably other traits of our body and personality, but also highlight how much of what we are, and what defines us, is really inherited or instead is acquired during our lifetime," the authors write.

Examples of look-alikes

Look-alikes used in the current study. (François Brunelle)

The powers of nurture and nature are not easily teased apart, and while twin studies are a popular form of research in the field of genetics, doppelgängers are a bit of an untapped market.

Since 1999, Canadian artist François Brunelle has been using the far-reaching fingers of the internet to identify and keep track of look-alikes around the world.

Now, researchers are tapping into his catalog to better understand both what makes us human and what sets individuals apart.

The current study draws on 64 photographs of look-alikes recruited from francoisbrunelle.com, along with saliva DNA and lifestyle questionnaires for each participant.

According to genetic analyses, look-alikes were ultimately found to share similar genetic make-ups, even though pairs were not related.

Individual participants differed, however, in how their life impacted their genome.

Each person's microbiome, for instance, is heavily influenced by environmental factors like nutrition, exercise, and smoking.

This means the world of bacterial life in our guts differs quite a lot from individual to individual, even among those who have similar genetics.

The same goes for each look-alike's epigenome, which describes the chemical modifications made to coiled strands of DNA that can turn genes on or off. These differed even among ultra look-alikes in the current study.

This study builds on past research that suggests the structure of the human face, especially the nose, is sculpted by specific parts of DNA.

That doesn't mean look-alikes are long-lost twins or kindred spirits. None of the participants in the current study inherited their genes from the same recent ancestors.

Their genetic similarities represent a distinct subset of human resemblance that could one day be used to predict how an individual might grow and age.

"We provided a unique insight into the molecular characteristics that potentially influence the construction of the human face," says biomedical scientist Manel Esteller from the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute in Barcelona, Spain.

"We suggest that these same determinants correlate with both physical and behavioral attributes that constitute human beings."

The study was published in Cell Reports.


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; History; Society; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: ancientautopsies; genealogy; genotype; godsgravesglyphs; helixmakemineadouble; phenotype; skindeep
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To: Red Badger
I suddenly have a hankerin' for some gum
21 posted on 08/23/2022 12:28:57 PM PDT by V_TWIN (America...so great even the people that hate it refuse to leave)
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To: ComputerGuy; Red Badger

http://christianfunnypictures.com/2012/06/how-god-made-types-of-people-on-earth.html/god-farside-sprinkle-of-jerks-from-allforgodslove-facebook


22 posted on 08/23/2022 12:29:23 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: freedomjusticeruleoflaw

“the difference between the races is not color. In fact, color may be the least consequential aspect of the differences in the races”

My friend, you just said a mouthful right there.

Don’t be surprised if the men in black pay you a visit for re-education.

If that reality ever took hold in society and spread there would be a lot of nefarious and unscrupulous people out of jobs.


23 posted on 08/23/2022 12:33:14 PM PDT by V_TWIN (America...so great even the people that hate it refuse to leave)
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To: Red Badger
I’ve never been mistaken for somebody famous, except Fidel Castro when I was 22..........................

Panic in Detroit...

24 posted on 08/23/2022 12:33:25 PM PDT by null and void (they promise the jetsons but deliver the flintstones)
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To: Red Badger
I have noticed that when introduced to people that bear striking resemblances to folks from my past, that they often have the same personalities. Of course part of that could be projection on my part, and they in turn reacting in ways that reflect how I am relating to them.

It's and interesting phenomena, regardless.

25 posted on 08/23/2022 12:33:31 PM PDT by Sirius Lee (They intend to murder us. Prep if you want to live and live like you are prepping for eternal life)
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To: algore

Jotato looks like a horse’s ass.


26 posted on 08/23/2022 12:33:48 PM PDT by Howie66 (Let's Go Brandon!!)
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To: Red Badger

Only time I ever got thrown out of a bar it was a case of mistaken identity. The lady server could not be convinced I was someone other than who she thought I was.

Another guy rolls his car window down and starts talking to me like I was his good friend Jim. Lol. It’s happened a few other times too. Poor bastards who look like me.


27 posted on 08/23/2022 12:34:37 PM PDT by subterfuge (I'm a pure-blood!)
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To: SunkenCiv

Wasn’t Vicki Lawrence chosen from a Carol Burnett look-a-like contest?


28 posted on 08/23/2022 12:41:19 PM PDT by MHGinTN (A dispensation perspective is a powerful tool for discernment)
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To: Red Badger

Wil Ferrell and (Red Hot Chillipeppers) drummer Chad Smith?

29 posted on 08/23/2022 12:42:48 PM PDT by Tallguy
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To: Red Badger

You and me both. It happens to some of us quite regularly. I’ve even had some people adamantly tell me they know me somehow.

On top of that, I’m also kind of a “super-recognizer” myself. It’s a blessing and a curse. I can match famous people’s kid pictures even though I never saw them when they were young. It drives my husband nuts. (Me too, sometimes.)

So if you come up to me and say that I look familiar, and I don’t recognize you, it means I’ve never met you or seen you. I guarantee it.

One woman was so heartbroken that we hadn’t met that I came up with an excuse. I asked if her if the idea of alternate universes was plausible. I told her maybe we met in our dreams in an alternate universe. She accepted that and finally left me alone.


30 posted on 08/23/2022 12:45:32 PM PDT by FamiliarFace (I wish “smart resume” would work for the real world so I could FF through the Burden admin BS.)
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To: Red Badger

I told her it WASN’T me...


31 posted on 08/23/2022 12:48:46 PM PDT by dakine
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To: ComputerGuy

Yep, and He did the same thing for guys.

For women, we all have little boxes in our brains, and they all have connections to the other boxes, all of them. For men, they have boxes, too, but none of them touch each other or are connected in any way. They are very compartmentalized boxes. Men even have a box that has nothing in it, so that when a women asks what they’re thinking about, and they reply “nothing”, they are telling the truth. 😉


32 posted on 08/23/2022 12:50:20 PM PDT by FamiliarFace (I wish “smart resume” would work for the real world so I could FF through the Burden admin BS.)
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To: GOPJ

Thank you.


33 posted on 08/23/2022 12:51:09 PM PDT by FamiliarFace (I wish “smart resume” would work for the real world so I could FF through the Burden admin BS.)
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To: MHGinTN

Well, and she also listened to her mother. :^)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicki_Lawrence#Early_life

Her mother didn’t teach her to talk like *this* though (I’m guessin’):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qqE_WmagjY


34 posted on 08/23/2022 12:53:05 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: maddog55

You’re right. One is an empty headed dummy. The other Jeff Dunham’s puppet.


35 posted on 08/23/2022 12:55:59 PM PDT by sjmjax
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To: Red Badger

I have a doppleganger.

He looked like me, almost to a T.

Get this...

He had the same name as me.

We met in 1977 in Istanbul. Freaked me out...and the people I was with.

We kept in touch for about five years and did some stupid stuff.

Lost contact about 15 years ago.

Weird.

5.56mm


36 posted on 08/23/2022 12:56:42 PM PDT by M Kehoe (Quid Pro Joe and the Ho got to go.)
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To: FamiliarFace

When I came home from college one summer in the mid-’60s, my younger brother’s friends asked him why he didn’t tell them that April Dancer (The Girl From Uncle) was his sister.


37 posted on 08/23/2022 12:56:59 PM PDT by MayflowerMadam (Sometimes when you get to where you're supposed to be, it's too soon.)
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To: Red Badger

During the time I was separated from my first husband, I went back to my home county. Even though I wasn’t in the same town, I kept being mistaken for some girl I had heard of during my teen years.

One guy was so sure I was her he kept calling me by her name. I had the answer to it — she was actually my first cousin once removed. If she still looks like me all these years later, I feel sorry for one of us!

‘Face

;o]


38 posted on 08/23/2022 1:02:28 PM PDT by Monkey Face ( ~~ Life gets better when you start forgiving the people who never apologized. ~~ )
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To: Red Badger

I have a doppelganger that lives near me. We drove the same old beat up truck, and even had the same model and color. Got rid of that truck, and then I see him around with a new truck nearly identical to my new one. We both sort of stare at each other when we pass on the road. Even a police officer thought I was his buddy until he got real close for a handshake. It’s real weird.


39 posted on 08/23/2022 1:03:24 PM PDT by Mr. Mohasky (Common sense in a world lacking any, will be perceived & construed as an extreme point of view.)
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To: Red Badger

About 2 years ago, I was shopping in a grocery store.
While in the produce section, I looked over and saw my Dad looking at the apples.
I stopped breathing for a few seconds.
My Dad’s been dead since 2011.
This stranger was the spittin’ image of him, though.
I had to stop him and tell him this -thanking him for reminding me how much I missed him.

I was sad the rest of the week...


40 posted on 08/23/2022 1:09:17 PM PDT by RandallFlagg ("Okay. As long as the paperwork is clean, you boys can do what you like out there." -Fifi)
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