There is no evidence of twin telepathy. There are many myths about twins—hence, the title of my new book, Twin Mythconceptions: False Beliefs, Fables, And Facts About Twins (2017, Elsevier).
As a result of such anecdotal evidence, it has been suggested that twins can read each other's minds; that they have special twin telepathy; and that they have extrasensory perception (ESP). However, there is no scientific evidence to confirm this.
So identical twins are kind of like two pies made from the same recipe. They are more similar than pies made from different recipes, say apple and blueberry. But if you look closely, they are still not exactly the same. They will always have some physical differences due to differences in their environment.
About 40% of twins, generally monozygotic or identical twins, will develop some form of autonomous language, using nicknames, gestures, abbreviations, or terminology that they only use with each other. While parents and siblings can often discern the meaning, the twins generally don't use the terms with others.
Many experiments over the years have failed to prove that twins feel each other's pain.
The results suggest that twin fetuses are aware of their counterparts in the womb, that they prefer to interact with them, and that they respond to them in special ways. Contact between them appeared to be planned—not an accidental outcome of spatial proximity, says study co-author Cristina Becchio of Turin.
Identical twins share a particularly intense bond. They are the result of one fertilized egg splitting into two, giving them identical DNA. (Fraternal twins are the result of two separate, genetically different fertilized eggs.) As a result, identical twins are as close as two people can be.
These studies showed that IQ is very heritable (although the environment still plays a role in determining your IQ). We can tell this because the IQ of identical twins are almost always the same and non-identical twins are only sometimes the same.
Everyone knows that twins have a special connection between them, and can sometimes posses a supernatural bond. A twin can sense when their sibling is in pain, and they sometimes "share a brain" by reacting to the same situation in an identical way.
Twins on the average seem to have lower IQs than singletons. The best estimate for this group difference is 4.2 IQ points (less than one-third of a standard deviation), with a great divide between study outcomes of less vs more recent birth cohorts (5.1 vs 0.5 IQ points, respectively).
Identical twins will always have the same blood type because they were created from the same fertilized egg (fraternal twins can have different blood types — again, providing the parents do — because they are created by two fertilized eggs).
The DNA of monozygotic twins tends not to be 100% identical, and epigenetic and environmental differences further widen the gap between twin pairs. It's not nature or nurture; it's a complex interaction between our genes, our environment, and our epigenetic markers that shape who we are and what illnesses befall us.
It was concluded, among many other things, that identical twins are about 85 percent similar for IQ, whereas fraternal twins are about 60 percent similar. This would seem to indicate that half of the variation in intelligence is due to genes.
Do twins think the same? Yes, identical twins do have similar brain activity in certain situations. Research found that identical twins are the ones impacted by this phenomenon because they share identical genes. Brain imaging proves that their thought processes are more similar than other people's.
But any forensics expert will tell you that there is at least one surefire way to tell them apart: identical twins do not have matching fingerprints. Like physical appearance and personality, fingerprints are largely shaped by a persons DNA and by a variety of environmental forces.
Twin telepathy is when one twin can access the thoughts and feelings of another twin without the other giving any prompts or signs. This is one of the key factors that makes twin relationships somewhat stronger than sibling relationships. It's almost like a sixth sense exists between twins!
The hardest thing about having twins is…
“Managing the movement of two babies. Carrying them both up and down the stairs, getting them into the car, etc.” —Simeon R. “Often having to make one baby wait!” —Catharine D. “Being outnumbered—the logistics of two on one is definitely the hardest.
Monoamniotic-monochorionic Twins
This is the rarest type of twin, and it means a riskier pregnancy as the babies can get tangled in their own umbilical cords.
Being a twin has its benefits—tricking people, having a lifelong companion, sharing clothes—but it also has downsides. Many twins struggle to cultivate their own identities, while being so similar to one another. And that struggle lasts a lifetime, according to a recent study.
Identical twins live longer, possibly because they have a BFF from birth, according to researchers from the University of Washington, Seattle, WA. Furthermore, this effect is greatest in male identical twins, according to results from their recent study, published in the journal PLOS ONE.
They examined reported levels of happiness in 1,300 sets of identical and fraternal twins. Identical twins reported similar levels of happiness, while fraternal twins exhibited greater variation in their reported sense of well-being.
Despite having the same genetic makeup, identical twins have their own distinctive personalities. Just how their individuality emerges has remained a bit of a mystery. But now, researchers have found that life experiences affect brain development — and this may help us understand how personalities form.
Everyone has the same chance of having identical twins: about 1 in 250. Identical twins do not run in families. But there are some factors that make having non-identical twins more likely: non-identical twins are more common in some ethnic groups, with the highest rate among Nigerians and the lowest among Japanese.
More than half the pairs produced at least one disputed memory in response to cue words. They also found that zygosity of the twins did not matter; monozygotic and dizygotic twins produced equal number of disputed memories.
"And when her (Rebekah) days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. And the first came out red, all over like a hairy garment; and they called his name Esau. And after that came his brother out, his hand holding on to Esau's heel – " (Gen 25:24-26).