Althouse: "In 1961, triplet brothers Robert Shafran, Eddy Gallan and David Kellman were separated at birth and adopted by three different families for a controversial experiment...."

February 2, 2018

"In 1961, triplet brothers Robert Shafran, Eddy Gallan and David Kellman were separated at birth and adopted by three different families for a controversial experiment...."

"[W]hen Shafran enrolled in Upstate New York's Sullivan County Community College. He was met with an overwhelmingly warm reception by people who were friends with — and who mistook him for — his brother, Gallan."

The Daily News Reports (on the occasion of a new documentary film).

16 comments:

Curious George said...: Wait, so science isn't pure?; 2/2/18, 6:53 AM
Oso Negro said...: A “controversial” experiment? How about a fucking evil experiment?; 2/2/18, 6:55 AM
mockturtle said...: Ethical considerations aside, what were the results of the study?; 2/2/18, 6:56 AM
AllenS said...: Oh, God, one of the brothers will be a conservative Republican and the other two brothers will hate his guts. This will not have a happy ending.; 2/2/18, 7:19 AM
MadisonMan said...: Ethical considerations aside, what were the results of the study?

Well, (spoiler alert) one of the brothers killed himself.; 2/2/18, 7:32 AM
Fernandinande said...: Curious George said...
Wait, so science isn't pure?

What a completely bizarre thing to say.

bad science

Sample size way too small - essentially just an anecdote.
Results "sealed" at Yale until 2066.

Here they refute what was obviously a ridiculous, nonsensical finding (which made it popular in the MSM, sigh) with about 24,000 twins and 300,000 regular kids.; 2/2/18, 7:33 AM
Wince said...: Each of the three brothers was monitored for a legal study spearheaded by Dr. Peter Neubauer, a psychoanalyst with the Manhattan Child Development Center — what is today The Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services, The Independent reported.

The study sought to answer the "nature or nurture" question and determine if the triplets ultimately became who they now are because of the environment in which they grew up.

If they were each adopted by jewish families that in itself would vitiate the experiment, wouldn't it?; 2/2/18, 8:08 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: Fernandistein said...

Here they refute what was obviously a ridiculous, nonsensical finding (which made it popular in the MSM, sigh) with about 24,000 twins and 300,000 regular kids.

What ( popular in the MSM ) finding does the study refute? I read the abstract, and had never heard of the finding that the study refutes. The study does not appear to address nature vs. nurture, nor say how much of intelligence is heritable.; 2/2/18, 8:24 AM
Ray - SoCal said...: And the results were?

There were twins the same thing was done too.; 2/2/18, 9:00 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: "Ethical considerations aside, what were the results of the study?"

Sealed for now. But other twin studies have been done. Looks like your intelligence and certain aspects of personality are largely in your genes. But a lot of the more important things, like how you treat people, are learned.; 2/2/18, 9:05 AM
Levi Starks said...: Has the feel of The Truman Show.; 2/2/18, 9:15 AM
Unknown said...: I have triplet girls. This is fucking monstrous.; 2/2/18, 9:22 AM
Beth B said...: As an adoptee, this makes me so angry there are no words...; 2/2/18, 9:36 AM
Luke Lea said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/2/18, 9:37 AM
Fernandinande said...: Ignorance is Bliss said...
What ( popular in the MSM ) finding does the study refute?

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/23/magazine/23wwln_idealab.html
"In a widely-discussed 2003 article, he found that, as anticipated, virtually all the variation in I.Q. scores for twins in the sample with wealthy parents can be attributed to genetics. The big surprise is among the poorest families. Contrary to what you might expect, for those children, the I.Q.’s of identical twins vary just as much as the I.Q.’s of fraternal twins. The impact of growing up impoverished overwhelms these children’s genetic capacities."
(The above turned out to be false).

A couple more similar mentions in the generally IQ-allergic NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/opinion/09nisbett.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/opinion/16kristof.html

I read the abstract, and had never heard of the finding that the study refutes.

It's one of my interests so I probably notice any mentions of it more than most people.

The refuted study:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/files/u81/Turkheimer_et_al___2003_.pdf; 2/2/18, 10:16 AM
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...: There were twins the same thing was done to.

2/2/18, 9:00 AM

Yes, the most famous study was that done of the "two Jims," identical twins adopted separately (and both were named Jim.) When they finally met as middle-aged adults, they discovered that not only did they have the same profession and interests, but they smoked the same brand of cigarettes, and got married at the same age and had the same number of kids. Both had wives named "Linda."

I can see IQ and professional and many interests being the same, but how can you be genetically wired to marry a woman named Linda at 29 or whatever their age was at the time?

The separated-at-birth twin and triplets stories confirm the primacy of nature over nurture (although most parents can tell you the same), but those revelations came at a monstrously high cost for the twins who grew up without each other.

I recall reading about the triplets years ago in a book called "Twins" by Lawrence Wright. The female researcher who followed the triplets for years, often paying all 3 homes a visit in the course of a day, expressed no remorse for the fact that the study had been conducted under false pretenses. It was an interesting experiment, you see.; 2/2/18, 11:19 AM