The Secret Twin Study: Files Sealed Until 2065

In the 1960s, a young research assistant visited a middle-class home on Long Island to test an eight-year-old boy. She measured his IQ, motor skills, and administered a Rorschach inkblot test, filming him as he played. The boy was ordinary, but his boss, Dr. Peter Neubauer, believed this child held the key to one of science's great mysteries: the nature-versus-nurture debate. What the boy and his parents did not know was that he had an identical twin brother he had never met, a brother the research assistant had tested the week before. They were unwitting subjects in a secret twin study whose files remain sealed until 2065.

The Study's Design and Deception

Identical twins share nearly all of their DNA, making them invaluable for comparing genetic versus environmental influences. In the 1960s, Dr. Viola Bernard, chief psychiatric consultant for the Louise Wise Services adoption agency in Manhattan, implemented a policy of separating newborn twins placed for adoption. She argued this gave each child a better chance at developing an independent identity and receiving undivided parental attention. Her colleague, Dr. Peter Neubauer, saw an opportunity. If he could study identical twins raised in completely different environments, he could settle the nature-versus-nurture debate.