Lookalike contests are all the rage — and there’s a science behind two identical people

It started with Timothée Chalamet, and now many celebrities have dozens of lookalikes. Experts explain that, in fact, the similarities are justified: the unknown “twins” share parts of their genetic makeup.

A peculiar competition took place last month in the United States to select the best “double” of the protagonist of “Dune”, Timothée Chalamet.

Now, the fashion has become popular, and “lookalikes” of other famous personalities have been seen, such as Harry StylesJeremy Allen White or Paul Mescal. The winner of the competition (i.e. the most similar) wins around 50 euros.

But, after all, these people really do have something in common — something that has been scientifically studied for a few years.

I was behind the Timothee Chalamet lookalike competition. Thanks my #1 fan (timothee) for showing up.

— Anthony Po (@anthpo)

In 1999, the photographer Fraçois Brunelle launched one called “I’m not a double!”, which featured people who didn’t know each other, but who were identical (“strange twins”, as he called them). Later, he was contacted by the scientist Manel Esteller, a molecular geneticist at the Carreras Leukemia Research Institute in Spain.

Esteller then carried out a study, in which he subjected these people to “three facial algorithms, the same ones used by the police and at airports”the scientist tells .

The findings were published in 2022, and are surprising — but, for scientists, not really.

It is known that genetic sequences that control characteristics such as bone structure, skin pigmentation and water retention affect the appearance of the human face.

In the human genome, these sequences include polymorphic sites, in which a single DNA base pair presents different variants in the population — and lookalikes shared the same variationsexplica a National Geographic.

This, then, means that these people actually share different parts of their genetic makeup.

“Right now, there are so many people in the world that eventually one hopes there will be people who share a greater number of variants [genéticas]”, explained the investigator.

Also Nancy Segala professor of psychology at California State University, Fullerton, carried out a study to try to discover whether, as these people have similarities in genetic makeup, they could also have psychological similarities, and also asked the look-alikes photographed by Brunelle to collaborate.

Although I realized that these “strange twins” are not as similar to each other as the actual twins, there are characteristics often shared by similar people.

Esteller states, for example, that “if one was a smoker, the other was probably a smoker” and vice versa, because addictions are, in part, a genetic characteristic, like myopia and visual impairment.

Conclusion: a Timothée Chalamet lookalike may have a similar gait and voice those of the actor himself, but do not necessarily have the same charisma and talent. As Segal says, “Many of these people will be disillusioned, because just because they look like someone doesn’t mean they are equal “.

Still, he reminds us, human beings tend to be attracted to people who are most similar to themselves: “I think that tells us something about human nature, in the sense that We all desire similarity“, says the researcher.

Esteller even comments that he heard that two of the people studied They ended up falling in love and getting married. It is, therefore, possible that going to a “lookalike contest” is worth not only the cash prize, but also, who knows, a new friendship.