Your doppelgänger’s out there and you share more similarities than you think

Charlie Chasen and Michael Malone, Atlanta, 2014.

Imagine walking down the streets of Singapore and seeing someone who looks almost exactly like you. Well, you and that person could have a lot more in common than you think.

Canadian artist, François Brunelle, kickstarted a photography project titled “I’m not a look-alike!”, which centres around capturing individuals who bear similar physical traits to each other from all across the world. The project drew scrutiny from scientists who have dedicated their research towards genetic relationships, one of which was Dr. Manel Esteller, a researcher at the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute in Barcelona.

A study conducted by Dr. Esteller revealed that 16 of the 32 pairs of look-alikes from Mr. Brunelle’s photography project shared significantly more of their genes that the other half who were deemed to be less similar using a facial recognition software. This may seem intuitive at first, but it has not been proven in any research before. However, DNA alone does not provide us with the full picture.

External factors such as our unique lived experiences along with those of our predecessors greatly influence which of our genes are switched on or off — otherwise known as epigenomes. Our microbiome, which is our microscopic co-pilot consisting of bacteria, fungi and viruses is also influenced by our environment. It was found that while the subjects’ genomes were similar, their epigenomes and microbiomes were different.

This discrepancy reveals that the doppelgängers’ similar appearances have more to do with their DNA makeup than with the environment they grew up in. While this was a surprising revelation for Dr. Esteller, who had expected to see the results more greatly affected by external environments, it is after all, not too shocking if we consider the sheer size of the population and the finite permutations of a human face.

The findings of this study bodes well for doctors when diagnosing illnesses in the future. If individuals have similar enough genes, they too might share a similar propensity for diseases. Further, Dr. Esteller suggested that there could also be links between facial features and behavioural patterns, which can prove to be useful in forensic research despite skepticism from other experts.

Taking a step back from the science of it all, the photography project by Mr. Brunelle was well received on social media, and participants believed that it only seeks to bring us closer. After all, the knowledge that we might all have a secret twin serves as a way to connect us rather than divide us all.