Communication Third-year Anna Rigo grew up with a mystery surrounding her birth:
ANNA RIGO: We are born 30 seconds apart, we’re born in the same minute. They didn’t tell anyone who was older and they could get away with it. ’cause our birth certificates are the same.
Rigo is a fraternal twin and due to the close birth time of her and her brother, she spent several years without an answer to the essential question: who is the older twin?
RIGO: my 18th birthday was a birth order reveal party. We had like all of my friends ever come and they like put their name into the hat of who they thought was older. And then my dad like announced the world sadly by 30 seconds, I am the younger twin.
Now twins aren’t common per se, according to the CDC they account for about 3% of all live births, but chances are high that you know a twin or two. But despite, or perhaps because of, their relative rarity, we eat up stories like Rigo’s. Even look at our movies, tv shows, and books: you’ll see Sinners, The Secret History, even The Suite Life of Zach and Cody. We are so fascinated by twins, but the question…is why?
Casper M. Wong is a second-year in the School of Communication, and you guessed it, a twin as well. When Wong tells people that they’re a twin, the response as you might expect:
CASPER M. WONG: If we are together, people will say, I don’t believe you because we don’t look alike and people often forget twins are not necessarily identical.
But then, there are some unexpected ones.
WONG: A lot of what comes up is like, can you read each other’s minds surprisingly? Which the answer is no. But thank you for asking
And this isn’t just something asked to Wong. As a twin myself, I felt some authority on this subject and while I can’t give my thoughts as a reporter, I knew someone who could.
[Sound of Ringtone
N.CASA: Hello?
S.CASA: Hi!]
That’s Natalie Casa, a third-year at Denison University and, yes, my twin sister.
N.CASA: they’re like, what? And then they’re like, do you have mind powers? I’m just kidding. They don’t always say that. But sometimes people do. I mean, I’m sure you’ve gotten it too, where they’re like, can you read each other’s mind? Or like goofy stuff like that.
But do these ideas have any merit? Or is it just wishful thinking or science fiction? Well, the good thing is that there are experts to weigh in.
NANCY SEGAL: I’ve always been interested in people and so. That interest in people plus being a twin really seemed to be a very natural and fascinating combination.
Nancy Segal is a professor of psychology and director of the Twin Studies Center at California State University, Fullerton. She’s written nine books about twins with another in production. She’s advised the teams of movies, tv shows, and books on the facets of twinhood. She also, fun fact, serves as a consultant for the Guinness World Records. All in all to say, she knows what she’s talking about when it comes to twins.
According to Segal, can twins read each other’s minds or have mind powers? The answer is no. Sorry to burst anyone’s bubble. But beyond this, Segal’s examined other fascinating twin misconceptions over her career.
SEGAL: Identical twins are exactly alike. They’re not exactly alike. There are differences between them and virtually everything you measure, it is just that they are more like than any of the pair of people.
Now another often repeated one is that having twins or being a twin is genetic.
SEGAL: And then there’s this idea that twins skip generations. Now it could happen, but there’s no rule that says that it must.
And while a lot of these ideas aren’t true, the fact that they exist tells us a lot about our society’s continued fascination with twins. Something Segal has thoughts on.
SEGAL: First of all, it’s unusual. It’s still a minority in the population, but more than that, I think it’s the fascination with identical twins that really stands out because we all learn to expect and appreciate individual differences in behavior and appearance. So we see identical twins who look so much alike and acts so much alike. It kind of challenges our belief in the way that the world should work. And so we find it intriguing whether we are engaged in it or whether we are repelled by it, but it’s intriguing nevertheless, and we wanna know more about who these people are who also seem to get along so well and so effortlessly.
And now, being and acting alike isn’t the case for all twins. In Wong’s case, Wong and their twin aren’t similar at all.
WONG: We not only have very different interests, but we’re also very, very different people. Um, down to like senses of style, what we prefer to do if we have like free time.
Now for most relationships, that would be a dealbreaker, but it’s different with twins.
WONG: I’m pretty sure if we weren’t related we probably wouldn’t be friends, but yeah, that’s my ride or die.
And this devotion and love for your literal day-1 is something nearly universal across the twins I talked to, including Rigo.
RIGO: I feel really lucky to have someone that I have gone through my whole life with and that understands my family so deeply, but then can also understand like my specific stage of life so deeply.
It’s a unique experience, but it’s one Natalie Casa wouldn’t trade for the world.
N.CASA: I just think I have a built-in best friend, and that is really kind of a cheesy thing to say, but it’s true. I mean, I, I think. There are things that I can say to you or I can give you a look when something is said where like we both have context to something that a lot of people wouldn’t have context to or like, you know, I don’t know, like inside jokes to the max almost, where like we’re connected in a way that like, I think is really special.
[“Chanson des jumelles” (“Twins’ Song”) from The Young Girls of Rochefort plays]
And while I can’t read her mind, I was thinking the exact same thing.
For WNUR News, I’m Sophia Casa
