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Aug 3 25 tweets 7 min read Read on X
In 1939, A research team began secretly stealing identical twins.

• The kids knew nothing.
• The adoptive parents knew nothing.
• Some were blocks apart. Some were in the same classroom.

Over 50 years later... The patterns they witnessed blew me away🧵 Image
Image
The mastermind?

Dr. Peter Neubauer, a child psychiatrist who fled Nazi Austria.

Ironically, he would go on to conduct one of the most ethically questionable studies in American history.

His goal?

End the nature vs. nurture debate once and for all. Image
The Louise Wise Adoption Agency in New York was his partner in crime.

When twins came in for adoption, they secretly separated them.

One twin would go to a wealthy family.
The other to a working-class home.

The perfect "scientific experiment"... Image
Image
The deception was elaborate:

• Parents were told they were part of a "child development study"
• Researchers visited homes regularly for "routine checkups"
• Children were filmed, tested, and monitored
• But no one knew about their twin

The truth stayed buried for decades. Image
Then in 1980, 19-year-old twins met by chance.

Paula Bernstein sat down at a deli in Manhattan when customers started calling her "Elyse."

She had no idea who Elyse was.

Until she came face to face with her identical twin sister she never knew existed... Image
The twins were stunned:

• Same laugh
• Same expressions
• Same mannerisms
• Same interests

Despite never meeting for 19 years.

But this wasn't just coincidence. It was by design.

And they weren't alone...
As news spread, more twins came forward.

Doug Rausch and Howard Burack
Michele Mordkoff and Allison Kanter
Ellen Carbone and Melanie Mertzel

All separated at birth.
All living parallel lives.
All victims of a secret experiment.

This is Doug and Howard: ↓ Image
Image
The researchers tracked everything:

• IQ tests
• Personality assessments
• Medical examinations
• School performance
• Family dynamics

5 researchers visited each child multiple times a year for over a decade.

All while keeping their true purpose hidden.
The study's findings?

Locked away at Yale University until 2065.

Dr. Neubauer never published his research.

Before his death in 2008, he said:

"I don't know if I could do it again... I don't think I could."

Yet he never apologized to the families.
Why 2065?

To protect the "privacy" of the researchers.

The same researchers who had no problem violating the privacy of dozens of families and separating twins at birth.

The irony is chilling.
Some twins eventually gained partial access to their files:

They discovered researchers had:

• Filmed their childhood
• Recorded their voices
• Documented every detail
• Known about their twin all along

While they grew up feeling "something was missing"
But here's what legitimate twin research actually shows...

Dr. Nancy Siegel at California State University Fullerton has spent 30+ years studying twins ethically.

With full consent and transparency.

Her findings changed everything we thought we knew about human nature...
The science is simple but powerful:

Identical twins share 100% of their genes.

Fraternal twins share 50% (like regular siblings).

By comparing how similar identical twins are versus fraternal twins, researchers can measure genetic influence on any trait.
At the Minnesota Study of Twins Raised Apart, Dr. Siegel studied hundreds of twins separated at birth.

These twins shared only genes, not environment.

Any similarities between them had to come from genetics.

The results shocked everyone.
Physical traits like height and weight?

80% genetic.

General intelligence?

70% genetic.

But here's where it gets wild: Even personality traits, job satisfaction, and brain wave patterns showed strong genetic influence.
The most surprising findings from the last 20 years:

• Religiosity (how much you invest in religious activities)
• Political attitudes
• Social attitudes

All have genetic components.

Things we assumed were purely learned are partially inherited.

This blew apart decades of psychology textbooks.Image
The most mind-bending cases are identical twins raised apart who show bizarre similarities:

• Both scatter love letters around the house to their wives
• Both bite their nails down to the nub
• Both describe mixed headaches "as if someone is beating on their head with a hammer"

Same exact phrases. No contact for decades.Image
But here's the crucial part most people miss:

Genes don't work like destiny.

They work like probability.

Dr. Siegel calls this the difference between "deterministic" and "probabilistic."

Having a gene for X doesn't guarantee X will happen.
Even identical twins can show different gene expression.

Same DNA, different outcomes.

This can happen even in the womb when environmental differences trigger different genetic switches in each twin.

Some identical twins look slightly different despite sharing 100% of their genes.
The beauty of legitimate twin research is it respects human dignity.

Dr. Siegel studied fraternal twins too - they serve as the "natural control group."

This ethical approach gives us the same insights without exploitation.
For me, this connects to everything I believe about human potential.

Yes, we have genetic predispositions.

But we also have incredible power to shape our development through our chosen environments.

That's why education and learning matter so much.
If this thread moved you, follow me @ToanTruongGTX for more mind-bending stories about psychology and human nature.

I dig deep into fascinating historical stories that changed how we understand ourselves.
I am the writer behind @geniusgtx, @geniusbusiness_, @mentalities_… and the "thread guy" behind many of your favorite creators.

We've worked with 30+ founders to get 500M combined views.

Schedule a call to learn how to write similar threads:

cal.com/geniusgtx/vira…
Hi! I'm Toan.

At 15, I convinced my parents to let me homeschool in Vietnam.

I finished high school at 16 and earned my bachelor's at 18.

Now I'm building @GeniusGTX to reimagine the future of education and humanity.

One Genius Away.
For a deeper dive explore these resources:

youtu.be/JMlJcOSRX-8

theatlantic.com/science/archiv…

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More from @ToanTruongGTX

Aug 1
This is fascinating...

In 2010, Netflix was supposed to kill streaming piracy.

Instead, it became cable 2.0—fragmented, overpriced, and annoying.

Now piracy is back…bigger than ever... and here to stay...

Here's the psychological flaw that broke streaming: 🧵 Image
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Want to watch Severance? Get Apple TV.

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Suddenly, watching TV became a scavenger hunt. Image
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In 1954, a psychologist took 22 normal boys to summer camp.

In just days, these 11-year-olds were stealing, burning flags, and raiding each other's cabins.

What went wrong?

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Born in 1906 in the Ottoman Empire, Muzafer Sherif was no ordinary scientist.

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He had a big question in mind: Image
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Jul 26
In 1913, Carl Jung had visions so terrifying that he thought he was going insane.

Blood floods. Millions dead. Europe destroyed.

One year later, WWI began.

Here was what he saw that night—and why he wasn't the only one: 🧵 Image
October 1913.

Jung was traveling by train when a horrific vision struck: A monstrous flood covering all of Europe. Thousands of corpses floating in yellow waves.

He gripped his seat, thinking: "I'm losing my mind."

Then August 1914 happened.
World War I erupted exactly as Jung had seen.

The blood, the death, the destruction—all of it.

But here's what's truly unsettling: Jung wasn't the only one having these visions... Image
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Jul 24
This man could read your mind in 30 seconds.

The FBI hired him.
Doctors called him impossible.

Yet most people have never heard of Milton Erickson.

Here's how he decoded humans like no one else: 🧵 Image
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His story is like no other...

Polio left him unable to move anything but his eyes. For months, he could only watch.

That's when he noticed something that would change psychology forever...
His sister said "I don't want to go to the dance"

But her eyes looked at her dress.

Her feet pointed to the door.
Her hands fixed her hair.

He realized: The body never lies. Image
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Jul 20
Psychiatrists don't want you to know this...

But a social worker with no medical degree healed "incurable" families in weeks.

Virginia Satir's banned methods exposed why 90% of therapy fails.

Her banned method exposed psychiatry's $300 billion lie: 🧵 Image
Image
Virginia Satir grew up poor in rural Wisconsin.

Her parents barely spoke.
Family dinners were silent.

By age 5, she made a decision:

"I'll become a detective of parents."

She had no idea she'd change therapy forever...
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• Lobotomies
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The focus? Fix the "broken" individual.

But Satir noticed something strange... Image
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Jul 19
Most people spend their whole lives trying to "find themselves."

Nietzsche said that's the biggest lie psychology ever sold you 150 years ago.

You're not lost. You're just refusing to find your true self.

Here's how to CREATE yourself instead: 🧵 Image
Image
In 1889, Friedrich Nietzsche collapsed in Turin, Italy.

He'd seen a horse being whipped and threw his arms around it, sobbing.

They found him days later, completely insane, writing letters signed "The Crucified."

But before his mind shattered, he left us a terrifying truth... Image
Nietzsche spent his entire life battling:

• Crippling migraines
• Near-blindness
• Chronic stomach pain
• Deep depression

Yet from this suffering came an insight that would revolutionize human psychology:
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