#50 Nancy Segal: Accidental Brothers, Twin Studies, Nature and Nurture, Epigenetics & More

------------------Support the channel------------ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedissenter PayPal: paypal.me/thedissenter ------------------Follow me on--------------------- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedissenteryt/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDissenterYT Dr. Nancy Segal is Professor of Developmental Psychology and Director of the Twin Studies Center, at California State University, Fullerton. She’s been the recipient of many awards and distinctions. She served as Assistant Director of the Minnesota Center for Twin and Adoption Research, in the Department of Psychology at the University of Minnesota, from 1985 to 1991. She’s also the author of many books, including Entwined Lives, Indivisible by Two, Someone Else's Twin, Born Together-Reared Apart, and, the latest one, Accidental Brothers: The Story of Twins Exchanged at Birth and the Power of Nature and Nurture. The central theme of this episode is Dr. Segal’s latest book, Accidental Brothers. We start the conversation with some personal questions, about what it was for Dr. Segal to live as and have a relationship with her fraternal twin, and also what she deemed to be the most interesting findings coming from the MISTRA (Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart). Subsequent topics include: studies with identical, fraternal and virtual twins, and triplets, and what they teach us about human nature; how people express themselves more fully as they get independent from their family; the nature vs nurture dichotomy, and also nurture via nature and nature via nurture approaches; the role of chance in people’s lives; epigenetics and the prenatal environment; how behavioral genetics might inform parenting practices; and related subjects.  Time Links: 01:08 Growing up as a fraternal twin 04:12 Findings from the MISTRA  08:50 The Colombian virtual twins  12:33 When twins reunite  14:37 What happens when people get independent from their family  17:11 Passive gene-environment correlations  18:46 Nature vs nurture  21:03 Does genetics set upper limits to our potential?  23:33 Have twins studies a WEIRD effect?  25:22 The role of chance in children’s development 27:21 Twin studies and parental uncertainty 29:29 Studies with triplets 30:55 Epigenetics 33:38 Prenatal environment 34:36 Diversity in human societies 40:11 Nurture via nature 41:07 Behavioral genetics and parenting practices 46:23 Follow Dr. Segal’s work -- Follow Dr. Segal’s work: Faculty page: http://psych.fullerton.edu/nsegal/ Personal website: http://drnancysegaltwins.org/ Twitter handle: @nlsegal -- A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, JUNOS, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JIM FRANK, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, AND HANS FREDRIK SUNDE! I also leave you with the link to a recent montage video I did with the interviews I have released until the end of June 2018: https://youtu.be/efdb18WdZUo And check out my playlists on: PSYCHOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/ybalf8km PHILOSOPHY: https://tinyurl.com/yb6a7d3p ANTHROPOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/y8b42r7g