Twins study
Viola Bernard, a prominent New York City psychiatrist, had persuaded Louise Wise Services, an adoption agency, to send twins to different homes without telling the adoptive parents that they were adopting a child who had a twin. Then, researchers sponsored by the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services secretly compared their progress. Bernard believed that identical twins would better forge individual identities if separated. By the time the twins started to investigate their adoptions, Bernard had already died, but the twins found New York University psychiatrist Peter Neubauer who had studied them. The twins study they were involved with was never completed. The practice of separating twins at birth ended in the state of New York in 1980, shortly after Neubauer's study ceased. Neubauer reportedly had Yale University lock away and seal the study records until 2065. He realized that public opinion would be so against the research that he decided not to publish it. As of 2007, the sisters and other twins had not persuaded Yale or the Jewish Board to release the records. By 2018, some 10,000 pages had been released but were heavily redacted and inconclusive. The Neubauer study differed from most twins studies in that it followed the twins from infancy. However, the debate about whether nature or nurture has a greater impact on human development continues. The documentary ''Three Identical Strangers'', which told the story of three male triplets who were also part of the study and found one another at age 19, noted that although much was made of superficial similarities among the three, their personalities were significantly different because they were raised by parents with profoundly different personalities and child-rearing practices. In addition, no one can accurately assess to what degree each infant in the study was shaped by the trauma of separation after several months together as infants. Some researchers believe that children's differences are forged less by their families than by Heritability, genetics and chance.Segal, Nancy (1999). ''Entwined Lives: Twins and What They Tell Us About Human Behavior''. Dutton. Contrasting neuroscience research of the last three or four decades supports the claim that minds are formed through relationships, especially in the first 1000 days of a child's life. In an interview with NPR to promote the publication of "Identical Strangers," Bernstein said, "Twins really do force us to question what is it that makes each of us who we are. Since meeting Elyse, it is undeniable that genetics play a huge role — probably more than 50 percent."Documentary films
Two documentaries about this study have been released, ''The Twinning Reaction'' (2017) and ''Three Identical Strangers'' (2018), along with the television episode ''Secret Siblings'' (2018).See also
*''Lisa and Lottie, The Parent Trap''References
{{Reflist Twin studies Books about adoption Adoption in the United States Human subject research in psychiatry Human subject research in the United States 2007 non-fiction books American memoirs Random House books