Born Together―Reared Apart: The Landmark Minnesota Twin Study

The identical “Jim twins” were raised in separate families and met for the first time at age thirty-nine, only to discover that they both suffered tension headaches, bit their fingernails, smoked Salems, enjoyed woodworking, and vacationed on the same Florida beach.

Order on Amazon, Harvard University Press.

Accidental Brothers: The Story of Twins Exchanged at Birth and the Power of Nature and Nurture

The riveting story of two sets of twins separated at birth and improbably reunited as adults, a dream case for exploring nature vs. nurture. Accidental Brothers tells the unique story of two sets of identical Colombian twin brothers who discovered at age 25 that they were mistakenly raised as fraternal twins ― when they were not even biological brothers.

Order on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million and IndieBound.

Twin Mythconceptions: False Beliefs, Fables, and Facts about Twins

Shedding new light on over 70 commonly held ideas and beliefs about the origins and development of identical and fraternal twins. Using the latest scientific findings from psychology, psychiatry, biology, and education, the book separates fact from fiction.

Order on Amazon or Elsevier.

Watch my Opening Address, International
Twin Congress. September 26, 2024, Assisi, Italy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gmthl0i-Bhs&t=1433s
start at about 23 minutes

Upcoming Lecture: "Genetics, Parenting and the Study of Twins." Fullerton Library,
October 17, 2024, 6:00-8:00 pm. Free event, open to the public. Registration: tinyrul.com/pvgenetics. Hosted by TheParentsVoiceUSA. 

London Times coverage of the article below:
https://www.thetimes.com/article/cb5c656c-7d76-4133-9134-4afa97f7463c?shareToken=5b304068e136c8a714ceaf709a23af74

See my newest article on repeat measure of IQ in two reared-apart twin samples and a sample of virtual twins (same-age unrelated siblings reared together).
https://authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S0191-8869(24)00211-3

See the just released film, THE ACCIDENTAL TWINS,
Doc film on doubly switched Colombian twins, Netflix;
https://www.netflix.com/title/81627034?trkid=13747225&s=i&vlang=en&clip=81776819; www.netflix.com/title/81627034

 

See my new article that describes two new parenting concepts: "Assortative Parenting and Assortative Cross-Parenting: New Views of Parental Preference for Selected Children.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378378223001998

Listen to an April 17, 2024 NPR-1A program about twins.
https://the1a.org/segments/the-tea-on-twins/

C-SPAN-2, Book TV!  WATCH THE SHOW! Gay Fathers, Twin Sons: The Citizenship Case That Captured the World, and The Twin Children of the Holocaust: Stolen Childhood and the Will to Survive.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?530176-1/gay-fathers-twin-sons-citizenship-case-captured-worldWatch my Skeptic September 1, 2023 interview about my 2 recent books,

hosted by Michael Shermer
https://www.skeptic.com/michael-shermer-show/nancy-segal-twins-behavior-genetics-eugenics-human-behavior/

Listen to my August 17, 2023 interview on Gay Fathers, Twin Sons
with host Larry Mantle on AirTalk: start at 33:38
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/airtalk/id73329334

You can hear my 8/2023 conversation with Chris Williamson, of Modern Wisdom Podcast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRjXwdEI-lY

Please see this news article about an extraordinary July 16 event--i spoke here at the book launch of the world's oldest survivor of Mengele's Auschwitz experiments.
https://www.australianjewishnews.com/memoir-highlights-survivors-amazing-life/

Listen to my interview on NPR (AirTalk with Larry Mantle, on my new 2023 book, The Twin Children of the Holocaust: Stolen Childhood and the Will to Survive. (Scroll down to 7th segment). Lasts about 17 minuteshttps://www.kpcc.org/podcast/airtalk/people-want-to-know-what-mayor-bass-is-going-to-do-about-homelessness-heres-what-she-said-during-the-state-of-the-city-address

PROGRAMS AND PAST EVENTS

Watch and read about this fascinating story of identical twins' alleged cheating and lawsuit that followed.
CNN Evening News, December 13, 2022

November 2021 release of
Nancy Segal's 7th book:

WATCH THE HALF-HOUR BBC DOCUMENTARY on Deliberately Divided, July 23, 2022. — AIRED ON 200 TV STATIONS WORLDWIDE
https://www.bbc.com/reel/playlist/split-at-birth-twins-divided

LISTEN TO MY JUNE 30, 2022 EPISODE OF MALCOLM GLADWELL'S REViSIONIST HISTORY ON TWIN EXPERIMENTS
Listen here...

LISTEN TO A RECENT NPR RADIO INTERVIEW ABOUT TWINS AND DELIBERATELY DIVIDED
Listen here...

Nature-Nurture BBC Mini-Series (Episode 1), February 10, 2022
Watch here...

Controversy! Ethical Issues Surrounding the 1960-70s New York City Study of Twins Deliberately Adopted Apart
April 14, 2022: 9:00 am Pacific time; noon Eastern time; 4:00pm UK; 5:00pm Europe
Zoom link: To come!

Sibling Revelry, Interview with actors Kate and Oliver Hudson, March 31, 2022
Listen to an interview about Deliberately Divided and many aspects of twinship
Listen here...

The Weekend University, London, UK (virtual):
https://theweekenduniversity.com/

NPR: AirTalk with Larry Mantle, KPCC 89.3
November 10, 2021, 11:40 am PT

Deliberately Divided: Inside the Controversial Study of Twins and Triplets Adopted Apart
Rowman & Littlefield

Read a review--two-page spread--in the New York Post
December 12, 2021
Read on NY Post...

See an interview with Twins Magazine about Deliberately Divided, December 2021
Read on Twins Magazine

Watch the December 19, 2021 lecture at Weekend University
Nature or Nurture?
Watch on Google Drive

Xploration Station, Season 2, Episode 1
Human Cloning and Twins, 2021
Watch here...

I look at twins as scientific treasures. Because just by acting
naturally in different research contexts, twins tell us so much about our
human behavior and how we got that way...

Bringing together the latest, cutting-edge research, with illustrative case histories of twins and their families, preeminent twin researcher Dr. Nancy L. Segal explores ways in which twins enhance our knowledge of human behavioral and physical development.

Learn More...

Someone Else's Twin

Identical twins Delia and Begona were born thirty-seven years ago in Spain's Canary Islands. Due to chaotic conditions at the hospital or simple human error, Delia was unintentionally switched with another infant in the baby nursery.

Learn More...

Indivisible by Two

This collection of case studies, following up on Entwined Lives: Twins and What They Tell Us About Human Behavior, feeds our fascination with "the tiny twists and great puzzles behind individuals' similarities and differences."

Learn More...

Entwined Lives: Twins and What They Tell Us About Human Behavior

Students and scholars interested in the twists and bedrocks of human development will find in this volume a stimulating sampler of cutting-edge research on the topics that define Freedman's career: behavior genetics, human ethology, evolutionary psychology, and culture.

Learn More...

Coming Soon!

Twin Mythconceptions

Shedding new light on over 70 commonly held ideas and beliefs about the origins and development of identical and fraternal twins. Using the latest scientific findings from psychology, psychiatry, biology, and education, the book separates fact from fiction.

Learn More...

Born Together Reared Apart

The identical “Jim twins” were raised in separate families and met for the first time at age thirty-nine, only to discover that they both suffered tension headaches, bit their fingernails, smoked Salems, enjoyed woodworking, and vacationed on the same Florida beach.

View PDF...
Learn More...

RECENT EVENTS:

Japanese Twin Society, January 22, 2021
Unusual Behavioral Similarities in Twins Reared Apart: Genetic Effects, Random Chance or Both?

December 19, 2021,
Nature or Nurture?

Talk With Francesca, 95.9 FM WATD
Interview: Deliberately Divided, December 8, 2021

Interview: Deliberately Divided: The Controversial Study of Twins and Triplets Adopted Apart

PRIM&R (Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research) Convention

November 16, 2021
https://www.eventscribe.net/2021/AER-SBER21/

"Meet the Author: Deliberately Divided: The Controversial Study of Twins and Triplets Adopted Apart"

Twins: Multiple Perspectives on Multiples,
May 14-15, 2021

Keynote Address by Nancy L. Segal; viewing of film

Three Identical Strangers, Expert Panel Panels;
Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies
Online Registration:
https://www.laisps.org/store

TV Azteca, Mexico, January 10, 2021
watch on YouTube

Twin Research-Conference from Brazil (INTERNATIONAL SPEAKERS); December 11, 2020
https://www.twinstudies.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Twin_Conference-Brazil.pdf

Life Examined: KCRW (Podcast)
October 10, 2020 - Interview with Dr. Nancy Segal,
https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/life-examined/individuality-genes-heritable-twins-traits/twins-genes-children-psycholog

Intelligence Squared (Debate): Parenting is Overrated
October 29, 2019
Parenting is Overrated

National Public Radio: Hidden Brain
March 25, 2019
What Twins Can Tell Us About Who We Are

PAST EVENTS 2017-2019:

University of Virginia Law School
The Twinning Reaction - Social Science and Deception, March 29, 2019
Charlottesville, VA
https://www.law.virginia.edu/node/521626

International Society for the Study of Individual Differences
Invited Keynote Speaker, July 29-August 1, 2019
Florence, Italy
https://issidorg.com/conferences/2019-florence-italy

TedX, Manhattan Beach, Manhattan Beach, CA, November 4, 2017. (EVENT):http://tedxmanhattanbeach.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2__1Jrcpv4&feature=youtu.be

Read the Atlantic Monthly article, "Identical Twins Hint at How Environments Change Gene Expression,"featuring Nancy Segal and her twin studies, by award-winning journalist Erika Hayasaki, May, 2018 https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/05/twin-epigenetics/560189/

Human Behavior & Evolution Society, July 4-7, 2018.
http://www.hbes.com/conference/hbes2018/invited-speakers/nancy-segal/

On The Media, NPR, with Brooke Gladstone, October 19, 2018. (WNYC): https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/what-twins-can-tell-us-about-humanity

NY Times Sunday Review

“Does Breast Milk Have a Sex Bias?”
by Nancy Segal et al.
New York Times (Sunday Review), January 21, 2017

“The Closest of Strangers”
by Nancy Segal
New York Times (Sunday Review), May 25, 2014

“The Whites of Our Eyes”
by Nancy Segal et al.
New York Times (Sunday Review), July 17, 2015