Читать книгу Infants and Children in Context - Tara L. Kuther - Страница 87

The average person cannot tell twin siblings apart because twins are virtually identical. Or are they? Consider these twin girls: Maria has strikingly dark hair and deep brown eyes, similar to her father. Maria’s twin sister, Anna, seems to take after their mother, with blond hair and blue eyes. Maria and Anna not only differ in appearance, but they like different foods, have different interests, and have somewhat different personalities. Although Maria is more outgoing and sociable than Anna, they both enjoy spending quiet solitary time in their room reading, drawing, and daydreaming. As twins, Maria and Anna shared a womb and many early experiences. Shouldn’t they be more similar? We tend to expect twins to share similarities, as they are often depicted in the media as identical in appearance, personality, and interests, yet they tend to differ in many unpredictable ways despite sharing parents and a home environment. Twins illustrate the complexity of how characteristics and tendencies are inherited. In this chapter, we discuss the process of genetic inheritance and principles that can help us to understand how members of a family—even twins—can share a great many similarities and also many differences.

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