Science says you probably have a doppelgänger

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Science says you probably have a doppelgänger

Science says you probably have a doppelgänger
Science says you probably have a doppelgänger

Of course we are all beautiful and unique snowflakes. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of other beautiful and unique snowflakes that happen to look like us. Hearing stories about people finding their doppelgängers are surprisingly common (even though that doesn’t change just how freaky it feels).

But if you haven’t yet met your twin stranger, don’t worry because science is now assuring (almost) all of us that they’re out there. In fact, there actually might be more than just one.

parent trap
parent trap

According to a new study produced by Teghan Lucas set out to find out just how unique our faces actually are. We live in a world with billions of people and most of them are sharing huge elements of themselves online. So it shouldn’t be that hard to track down unrelated lookalikes, right?

Well, sort of.

Lucas studied and recorded over 4,000 distinct features on unrelated faces.

Using some intense calculations, she found that there’s only a one in 135 chance of finding two faces with exactly the same features.

chance
chance

But, here’s the thing: You don’t need to have exactly the same features to look really, really similar to someone else. In fact, we don’t typically see the fine details and exact measurements in people’s faces. Our brains see faces more like a map of features, which means a much better chance that there’s someone out there who shares a very similar “face feature map” as you.

I read somewhere a long time ago that there are around 7 people who look like you at one time. Coincidentally, that is is in the bio of the @twinstrangers project. It's a really cool way of finding your doppelgänger. I'm sure, by now, you've seen the pictures going around of the two girls Niamh and Karen who were complete strangers but look identical. A while back, a photographer named Francois Brunelle also found strangers who looked like twins, and the photos are unbelievable. If you sign up for @twinstrangers, you upload two photos of yourself and check off your facial characteristics, and have a chance to look through pictures of people with similar characteristics. Do you know anyone who looks like me? Do you want to find your doppelgänger? Go sign up and try it out!

A photo posted by Jordan Elizabeth (@jordanelizabethshelton) on Jun 23, 2015 at 12:13pm PDT

While the odds of finding your exact living match are minimal, there’s a much higher chance that there’s at least one other person who you’ll share a ton of features with (even if it’s only on your face and the rest of your physical body is totally different). One example found that there are likely about 74,000 possible dopplegängers for a short blonde haired, brown eyed, fleshy nosed, round faced, bearded man.

Basically, if you’ve got pretty average features (which can still be totally stunning with the distinct way you rock them), there’s a good chance there are a lot more faces like yours out there. And if science fiction has taught us anything, it’s that if you someday meet one, it’ll pretty much rock both of your worlds.

used to it
used to it

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