Abstract
For instructors who teach courses or units on the sociology of families, selecting films can be daunting and tricky. Almost every film produced in Hollywood refers to some element of family, either marriage, children, siblings or managing in-laws; nearly every documentary involves stories and accounts from family members, spouses, or children. Films that document families through sociological theories exclusively tend to be outdated; however, Three Identical Strangers is a newer documentary film that plays out with a mystery narrative that keeps students engaged. While Three Identical Strangers is not an academic-targeted film, it can be used to talk to students about nature versus nurture debates in families along with research ethics and twin studies.
Three Identical Strangers has garnered critical acclaim around the world, earning several awards and nominations from organizations such as Sundance, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Director Tim Wardle makes the film something of a mystery, and despite being a documentary about real events, some websites and streaming services call it “drama” or “mystery,” probably because the real events would make for compelling fiction. The story is almost 40 years old, but it has roots in events from decades earlier.
In 1980, Robert (Bobby) Shafran enrolled in Sullivan Community College in New York where he was repeatedly mistaken for another man, Eddy Galland. On the first day of school, one of Eddy’s friends, Michael, confronted Bobby and told him he had a twin brother. After a phone call, Bobby and Eddy realize they had the same voice, same birthdate, and they were both adopted from Louise Wise Services, an adoption agency in New York. Michael takes Bobby to meet Eddy on Long Island, and the brothers see each other for the first time; they were clearly separated at birth and adopted out to different families.
Eddy and Bobby’s story was picked up by the news media and widely published throughout the United States. It was after the reports and photos became national news that a third man, David Kellman, was alerted by his friends that his picture was in the newspapers. David shared the same birthday with Eddy and Bobby, and he too was adopted from Louise Wise Services. The three men met each other and seemed to instantly know one another, wrestling and hugging. Friends and family reported about how similar the young men were in every way—their hands, their voices, their smiles. Eddy, Bobby, and David were in the news and on television for many months. The media showed the men in the same outfits, with the same haircuts, and sitting in similar positions. The American public and the men themselves believed that everything was the same about them—they had the same favorite color, smoked the same brand of cigarette, and preferred older women. The men reported feeling they loved each other from the moment they met despite growing up in different households.
The film reveals that the adoption agency, Louise Wise Services, was involved with psychological experiments on families and children. Led by Dr. Peter Neubauer, scientists separated twins and triplets to carry out decades of research on child development. Neubauer, having survived the Holocaust, was deeply interested in psychology and the question of whether nature or nurture was more powerful in human development. The film reveals that the twins in the study were children from mothers with mental illnesses and that they were placed in homes with older siblings previously adopted from Louise Wise. The research was never published, and records and notes remain sealed until 2066. Bobby and David talk about feeling like “lab rats” and being studied without informed consent.
This element of the film makes for excellent discussion among students about research ethics and informed consent. While the researchers were psychologists, their research is social psychological in nature and could be applied across social and behavioral sciences. Sociology instructors might compare the research against the American Sociological Association’s (2018) Code of Ethics and discuss the study in the context of other controversial social psychological experiments such as the Milgram obedience experiment (Milgram 1963), Zimbardo experiment (Zimbardo 1971), and Tuskegee syphilis study (Brandt 1977).
The film concludes that the three brothers were very different and that nurture seems to have won over nature, but both genetics and environment matter. When the brothers found one another in 1980, they and the American public were all looking for similarities, so that’s all they saw. However, the three men had three very different childhoods, with parents who varied in authoritarian styles and levels of household income. Bobby’s adopted father was a doctor, and his mother was an attorney; he grew up in prestigious areas. Eddy’s father was a teacher with a college education, but David reports that Eddy’s adoptive parents were middle class. David identifies his adopted parents as immigrants who spoke English as a second language and were the least educated and blue collar. One critique of the film is that the conclusion seems rushed and does not refer to sociological research about the power of family socialization (e.g., Keel 2016; Parsons and Bale 2002). The filmmakers do not refer to other twin studies carried out ethically, but this is something instructors can supplement with lecture or readings (e.g., Bouchard et al. 1990; Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research n.d.; Segal 2012).
Audiences may start to notice about 20 minutes into the film that the producers only interview two of the brothers, Bobby and David. When friends, family, and spouses talk about Eddy, they consistently use the past tense; this is because Eddy took his own life in his thirties. Instructors might want to give their students content warnings about mental illness and suicide for this reason.
Watching this film in its entirety is an excellent opportunity for students to see a true case study addressing nature versus nurture debates about families and socialization. Because of the dramatic nature of the documentary, I recommend watching it from start to finish. It is the last 20 minutes of the film that demonstrates how, despite the world thinking the three brothers were identical in every way, socialization had made them very different from one another. It is also a good film to watch in order to criticize harmful research project design and unethical social science tactics.
This film may be best utilized in courses on the family but also on units concerning socialization within families, primary socialization agents, and personality development through socialization. Educators might be interested in pairing the film with Takeuchi’s (2013) assignment that asks students to consider their own upbringing and socialization while reflecting on how they might parent themselves. One adaptation of the assignment could be for students to consider differences between siblings in their own families or siblings they know; this would allude to the film in a strong way.