Marriages of Twins to Twins

Abstract

SummaryFifty marriages of twins to twins have been studied. Most of them have the characteristics of MZ twins. All have an identical outcome of their marriages within each set. This finding and others from the literature are consistent with the idea that marital stability depends in part upon one's original “blueprint” for physical and emotional health.Two findings in this study, and others from the literature, are consistent with the idea that similarities at the chemical level may in general tend to promote a better understanding of each other and hence more congenial relationships: (a) all but one of the twin foursomes have lived closeby; three-quarters of them share the same house, even after they have had children; and (b) there is some degree of similarity in the ABO and Rh blood groups between husbands and wives in this sample.The stably-married twins knew each other for an average of four years before marriage, whereas the divorced and annulled ones met only a few weeks or months before marriage.