# About Twins (again)



## aLamour (Nov 17, 2010)

There are similar threads out there, but I want real twin opinions.
Why is it that twins can be so similar, and yet have opposite personality types?

I am not a twin. I wonder all the time what it would be like; if they ever feel misunderstood, or annoyed that people get them mixed up with their twin, or if they feel a deep connection with their sibling.


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## Up and Away (Mar 5, 2011)

I can't help looking at it from the percpective that: Environments will be drastically different for two individuals undergoing the same things.

Imagine a bow and arrow. From 10 feet, a slight difference will hardly be noticeable.

But have that arrow going for years, months, even days, or hours, and they might vary differently.

What u think?


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## aLamour (Nov 17, 2010)

Well sometimes they have the same genes (identical) and they go through the same things in the same environment. So what would make them entirely different internally? I don't get it.


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## Up and Away (Mar 5, 2011)

aLamour said:


> Well sometimes they have the same genes (identical) and they go through the same things in the same environment. So what would make them entirely different internally? I don't get it.


Not exactly the same if they are standing next to eachother. One standing on a hole? One 2 inches higher? Who knows. Some butterfly effect no doubt eh?


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## SyndiCat (Oct 2, 2010)

A story about two twins:

One of the two twins is eating his meal, a special crunchy type of meal that makes refreshingly loud and annoying noices when he chews it. Miss mommy walks in and says something in the lines of "Love you," but only the twin who paid attention heard it, the one who was busy eating his annoying food thought she said "Ron due," thus ignored her. Voilà, they stepped in two completely different directions in their mental process.


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## aLamour (Nov 17, 2010)

SyndiCat said:


> A story about two twins:
> 
> One of the two twins is eating his meal, a special crunchy type of meal that makes refreshingly loud and annoying noices when he chews it. Miss mommy walks in and says something in the lines of "Love you," but only the twin who paid attention heard it, the one who was busy eating his annoying food thought she said "Ron due," thus ignored her. Voilà, they stepped in two completely different directions in their mental process.


Lol are you a twin? Would then a bunch of these little differences make for a huge difference in personality?


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## Chinchilla (May 27, 2010)

aLamour said:


> Lol are you a twin? Would then a bunch of these little differences make for a huge difference in personality?


 You don't need to be a twin to think about how different things change a person. As a child one or two of my teachers in elementary school said something along the lines of myths being an explanation for things we didn't understand. I liked this because it seemed logical. Did that cause me to have Ti? No, but it most likely played a part on the way my brain thought. Another example from me would be as a kid when a teacher said that opinions are not facts. I believe this influenced my thought processes as well. It made me strive for facts and data and to always back myself up. Maybe my personality is what caused me to pay attention to this? Maybe these are small events that changed my way of thinking, ultimately causing my personality? Who knows, but these little things do influence people.

Now what would happen if two individuals who are nearly genetically identical (twins) went along two different paths? What if someone identical to me paid attention at just the right time and heard a teacher say something about always doing what you feel is right, or following your heart? Would that have influenced the other "me" and cause him to develop the F side?

I think intuition and sensing are learned more as toddlers. That is the stage where playing and exploring generally occur. The toys and playing might influence a child to be either sensing or intuiting. I think you must learn your information gathering process and you must be taught the decision making process. Now I could be totally wrong on all of this, so don't trust my hypothesis on this stuff.

I wonder if there is a evolutionary preferable personality type?


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## Just_Some_Guy (Oct 8, 2009)

First of all, lets distinguish between identical twins (real twins) and fraternal twins (siblings who _happen_ to be born at the same time). And why yes, I have an identical twin.

In the case of identical twins, they often share complementary domains in their psyche because of their biological identity. I have _never _met identical twins where this was not the case. With fraternal, this seems to be the rule rather than the exception. I blame the genetic dissimilarity here.

I'm an INTP and my brother is an INFJ. Check it out. Ti, Ne, Si, Fe coupled with Ni, Fe, Ti, Se. Socionomics (sp?) says I'm the benefactor here because my brother supports my deficient functions better than I support his. Generally speaking, although we have different personalities, we're still both dealing with Ti, Fe and Nx... which is nice.


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## Chinchilla (May 27, 2010)

EmotionallyTonedGeometry said:


> In the case of identical twins, they often share complementary domains in their psyche because of their biological identity. I have _never _met identical twins where this was not the case. With fraternal, this seems to be the rule rather than the exception. I blame the genetic dissimilarity here.


How many identical twins have you met other than yourself? Did your parents treat both of you about the same and raise both of you the same?

That might be the reason for the similarities. Could it be that fraternal twins are treated differently? Is there a psychological effect on seeing someone who looks nearly like you for the majority of your life? Could it be that mirror neurons have a stronger effect if two people look alike? I do not honestly see how personality types could be genetic. I haven't seen a correlation between families and personality types. 

I realize I ask many questions. Hopefully my questions will raise some insightful opinions.


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## Just_Some_Guy (Oct 8, 2009)

I was involved with the local Twins club and I was/am in the famous U of Minnesota's Twin's Study. I also grew up down the block from some other identical twins. I also played with some identical twins on my soccer team for several years. My wife's best friend is a fraternal twin.

We were treated pretty much the same, which was nice. I'm not sure if they encouraged our individual personalities at all. I wish they would have. We didn't get along for about 4 years as we each found our own individuality. Now we're inseparable again.

Well, mirror neurons, there's a thought. I've read about them. I like to say that we probably didn't realize we were different people for some time. I have a very strong feeling that we shared one consciousness for a while. 

As far as the genetic basis for personality, we are certainly not blank slates. I'm not saying that there's an INTP gene or anything like that, but we do have different strengths and weakness that may favor one type over another. 

Concerning families and personality, Jung writes that the child's psyche is the direct manifestation of the unconscious of the parents. 



Chinchilla said:


> How many identical twins have you met other than yourself? Did your parents treat both of you about the same and raise both of you the same?
> 
> That might be the reason for the similarities. Could it be that fraternal twins are treated differently? Is there a psychological effect on seeing someone who looks nearly like you for the majority of your life? Could it be that mirror neurons have a stronger effect if two people look alike? I do not honestly see how personality types could be genetic. I haven't seen a correlation between families and personality types.
> 
> I realize I ask many questions. Hopefully my questions will raise some insightful opinions.


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## Chinchilla (May 27, 2010)

EmotionallyTonedGeometry said:


> I was involved with the local Twins club and I was/am in the famous U of Minnesota's Twin's Study. I also grew up down the block from some other identical twins. I also played with some identical twins on my soccer team for several years. My wife's best friend is a fraternal twin.
> 
> We were treated pretty much the same, which was nice. I'm not sure if they encouraged our individual personalities at all. I wish they would have. We didn't get along for about 4 years as we each found our own individuality. Now we're inseparable again.
> 
> ...


Even though you are a twin I had to make sure you had reasonable experience with other twins. It seems that you do. I do agree that there are some genetic factors that play into personality, such as genes that influence the size of certain portions of the brain. If someone had an enlarged frontal lobe it could very easily effect the personality. Use or disuse also changes brain area size, so that also plays into personality as well.


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## aLamour (Nov 17, 2010)

EmotionallyTonedGeometry said:


> I was involved with the local Twins club and I was/am in the famous U of Minnesota's Twin's Study. I also grew up down the block from some other identical twins. I also played with some identical twins on my soccer team for several years. My wife's best friend is a fraternal twin.
> 
> We were treated pretty much the same, which was nice. I'm not sure if they encouraged our individual personalities at all. I wish they would have. We didn't get along for about 4 years as we each found our own individuality. Now we're inseparable again.
> 
> ...


OH MY GOD NO WAY, THE U OF MINNESOTA TWIN'S STUDY!!! I was like obsessed with that when I first got interested in psychology! So cool!


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## Angelic Gardevoir (Oct 7, 2010)

EmotionallyTonedGeometry said:


> First of all, lets distinguish between identical twins (real twins) and fraternal twins (siblings who _happen_ to be born at the same time). And why yes, I have an identical twin.
> 
> In the case of identical twins, they often share complementary domains in their psyche because of their biological identity. I have _never _met identical twins where this was not the case. With fraternal, this seems to be the rule rather than the exception. I blame the genetic dissimilarity here.
> 
> I'm an INTP and my brother is an INFJ. Check it out. Ti, Ne, Si, Fe coupled with Ni, Fe, Ti, Se. Socionomics (sp?) says I'm the benefactor here because my brother supports my deficient functions better than I support his. Generally speaking, although we have different personalities, we're still both dealing with Ti, Fe and Nx... which is nice.


 Interesting. I guess this proves that the environment definitely plays a role in personality, though similarities will pop up, as it did with you and your brother. Cool. ^_^


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## Tad Cooper (Apr 10, 2010)

aLamour said:


> There are similar threads out there, but I want real twin opinions.
> Why is it that twins can be so similar, and yet have opposite personality types?
> 
> I am not a twin. I wonder all the time what it would be like; if they ever feel misunderstood, or annoyed that people get them mixed up with their twin, or if they feel a deep connection with their sibling.


 I posted on another thread, that I'm an ENFP and my identical twin sister (laurie17 on here) is an INFJ. So we're near opposites with functions!
I like to think we have a deep connection, but we both had a 'thing' of feeling compared to the other throughout our lives. People would praise one of us and then add a little compliment to the other because they didn't want to leave her out (i.e. "Wow that's great! Oh and yours is good too.") I think we both got very annoyed at being mixed up as kids, but got used to it over the years. I actually told my sister she couldn't have her hair the same as mine or buy the same clothes when I was going through a phase of wanting to be seen as an individual rather than one of a pair.
I'd never want to stop being a twin though. I'd be lost without her  She's probably the only person who understands me at all! We get along really well too, although we do have the odd fight here and there XD


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## Just_Some_Guy (Oct 8, 2009)

tine said:


> I posted on another thread, that I'm an ENFP and my identical twin sister (laurie17 on here) is an INFJ. So we're near opposites with functions!


Are you kidding? You're both NFs. What more do you want? Ne/Fi coupled with Ni/Fe is a pretty darn good match. Both of you with an inferior S seems trouble though. Have you noticed that giving you any problems as you grew up?


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## Chinchilla (May 27, 2010)

EmotionallyTonedGeometry said:


> Are you kidding? You're both NFs. What more do you want? Ne/Fi coupled with Ni/Fe is a pretty darn good match. Both of you with an inferior S seems trouble though. Have you noticed that giving you any problems as you grew up?


 That's a very large difference... It's like comparing an INTJ to an ENTP.
Yes they're both rationals, but that is nearly the only similarity. In your case it is similar because the functions are just moved around.
In Tine's case it is:an ENFP (Ne Fi Te Si) and an INFJ (Ni Fe Ti Se)
They're in a sense opposite NF's.


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## Just_Some_Guy (Oct 8, 2009)

Chinchilla said:


> In Tine's case it is:an ENFP (Ne Fi Te Si) and an INFJ (Ni Fe Ti Se)
> They're in a sense opposite NF's.


All I'm saying as they could sure be a whole lot more opposite. Of course you're right that they are opposites... as far as NFs go.


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## Tad Cooper (Apr 10, 2010)

Chinchilla said:


> That's a very large difference... It's like comparing an INTJ to an ENTP.
> Yes they're both rationals, but that is nearly the only similarity. In your case it is similar because the functions are just moved around.
> In Tine's case it is:an ENFP (Ne Fi Te Si) and an INFJ (Ni Fe Ti Se)
> They're in a sense opposite NF's.


Yeah, that's what I meant! We're similar and yet very different! It shows up alot in the way we try and make decisions and how dedicated we are. I'm all over the place, wont settle down with one idea or one thing (I've tried painting, writing, martial arts, drawing, music etc), whereas she's manage to find one thing she loves and stick at it for years (she's a very good writer!)



EmotionallyTonedGeometry said:


> Are you kidding? You're both NFs. What more do you want? Ne/Fi coupled with Ni/Fe is a pretty darn good match. Both of you with an inferior S seems trouble though. Have you noticed that giving you any problems as you grew up?


 We are a good match  We get along very well and I love having an INFJ as a sister! 
We both have the problem of never focusing on the here and now really. Although I seem to have well developed Se (nearly as high as Ne which is an odd combination) and so I get more over excited about things without thinking them through, whereas she can take a step back and think about it then say if it's a good idea!


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## AstridEva (Jan 30, 2011)

I'm a fraternal twin. We are two girls. We don't share the same looks. (I am red-haired, she is brown-haired, I have brown eyes, she has blue). Our personality however, is in some levels very much alike. We analyze things the same way, we perceive things the same way, we enjoy the same music, we are both very calm, laid-back persons. We don't like being center of attention, and we tend to dislike talking about ourselves (when near others). However, our interests are not at all the same. We both play the saxophone and we both like classical music. She also plays the trombone, and I the trumpet. (No way were we going to be that similar). However, she likes mathematics, biology, science, the mystery of nature. I like history, culture, philosophy, languages. 

Even though we do not seem alike people always look for similarities and differences between us. That is quite annoying. Too soon the one of us is the brainy one, the other one is the dumb. They have found the athletic one, and the lazy one. The funny and the boring. The interesting and the uninteresting. Sometimes people see us as one person although we are not that similar. This is annoying. We were raised in the same home at the same time. We do spend much time together, it's not like we can annoy each other, and we are very good friends. Although I like the bond I know I have to my sister I dislike being the same person as she is. There's a thin line between being looked at as one person or to be looked at as two. I am struggling to be myself because I know my sister is a millionth time better than me (at least I feel like). She feels the same way as I do. It's hard for us to be seen as different persons. I guess it must be even harder for identical twins. 

Oops, this post is getting long. Anyway. I am an INFJ and I expect her to be an ISTP. (Not sure, though).


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## Medea (Jun 5, 2010)

I was an identical twin(she died at birth) so I always wonder these sorts of things and often feel quite cheated from the experience. I think that identical twins have similar thought processes, seeing as they come from the same egg, but that they still are their own person. (Unless raised to be the same) They have different reactions to certain situations, perceive things differently, and usually however they are raised makes a big difference in their development. 

Fraternal twins I think can be the same but the bond is not as strong.


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## Carina (Sep 27, 2009)

I am not a twin myself but my brothers are identical twins. They usually did everything together when they were younger but then they chose different schools. One of them told me that it was nice not to be "the twins", "one of the twins" etc. ^^, That was interesting for me to hear that and since he told me that I have been very careful in the way I speak about twins ^^, Remember they are two individual persons ^^,

<3


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## RoSoDude (Apr 3, 2012)

*feels weird about posting in a two-year old thread*

I'm an INTP and my twin brother is an ENTP (fraternal twin, by the way). I am personally led to believe that Jungian type is innate, because signs of certain personality traits can emerge at very young ages, so growing up in a very similar environment didn't play a huge role. More of it was genetics, in my opinion.

Interestingly enough, when we were younger, I was more excitable, and he was a little more to himself _when we were comfortable in our environments_. He has always been more outgoing in general, but if I felt at home somewhere, I'd just be off spouting ideas and saying what I was thinking, while he would invariably silently walk over to the nearest piece of technology and start fiddling with it. I think that in our childhoods we had a greater sense of balance in our lives -- I had enough time alone to myself to have the energy to be relatively outgoing and talkative.

We were always close, and we always were pretty good at understanding each other, but we have grown to have somewhat different priorities in life. We agree on most issues and share values, but we often disagree on the best way to go about them.


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## YourENFJ (Sep 16, 2016)

For the twins in this group - do you find that, on the I/E spectrum, if one leans more "E" the other leans more "I"?


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## heavydirtysoul (Jan 13, 2012)

Regardless of the context, the only thing I can think about is how I could use a twin to boost productivity - ah, only if I had one, I'd take over the World.


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