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Doppelgängers Don't Just Look Alike—They Also Share DNA. New research finds genetic and lifestyle similarities between unrelated pairs of “virtual twins” (www.smithsonianmag.com)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/science@lemmy.world
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[–] 11 points 4 months ago (4 children)

@RegularJoe I'm curious about how this might work across ethnicities. I can't point to a photo, but several times, I've noticed people from other continents who could easily be someone I know here, except they're African, or Asian, when the person I know is white, just for example. Under the expected differences in hair, eyes, etc, the basic facial structure is the same. A DNA match seems less likely in these cases.

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  • [–] 9 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    I don't think it's about a DNA match. Those people you mention could share more DNA than the rest of us, which could account for their similarities, but their DNA will never "match" anyone else's.

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  • [–] [S] 8 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    I don't have a great answer other than of the 32 studied, these were their stratification:

    Related to population stratification, among the 16 look-alike pairs, 13 were of European ancestry, 1 Hispanic, 1 East Asian, and 1 Central-South Asian.

    Source: https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(22)01075-0

    But whether people who look close enough to perform as another, such as the "Chinese Obama" (Xiao Jiguo) I can't say.

    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/china/chinese-president-barack-obama-lookalike-xiao-jiguo-charges-1-500-n444251

    Then there's Indonesia's former president, Joko Widodo:

    https://nextshark.com/people-love-indonesias-president-looks-like-barack-obama

    It would be interesting to get the researchers to analyze their DNA.

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