@RegularJoe I’m curious about how this might work across ethnicities. I can’t point to a photo, but several times, I’ve noticed people from other continents who could easily be someone I know here, except they’re African, or Asian, when the person I know is white, just for example. Under the expected differences in hair, eyes, etc, the basic facial structure is the same. A DNA match seems less likely in these cases.
I don’t think it’s about a DNA match. Those people you mention could share more DNA than the rest of us, which could account for their similarities, but their DNA will never “match” anyone else’s.
All humans are within 23 degrees of being cousins. The thing that surprised me most is that sub Saharan Africans are the most diverse genetically speaking.
I don’t have a great answer other than of the 32 studied, these were their stratification:
Related to population stratification, among the 16 look-alike pairs, 13 were of European ancestry, 1 Hispanic, 1 East Asian, and 1 Central-South Asian.
@RegularJoe thank you! This is quite interesting. I’d forgotten about the celebrity look-alikes you mentioned. I’m not surprised the studies aren’t there.
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@RegularJoe I’m curious about how this might work across ethnicities. I can’t point to a photo, but several times, I’ve noticed people from other continents who could easily be someone I know here, except they’re African, or Asian, when the person I know is white, just for example. Under the expected differences in hair, eyes, etc, the basic facial structure is the same. A DNA match seems less likely in these cases.
I don’t think it’s about a DNA match. Those people you mention could share more DNA than the rest of us, which could account for their similarities, but their DNA will never “match” anyone else’s.
All humans are within 23 degrees of being cousins. The thing that surprised me most is that sub Saharan Africans are the most diverse genetically speaking.
I don’t have a great answer other than of the 32 studied, these were their stratification:
Source: https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(22)01075-0
But whether people who look close enough to perform as another, such as the “Chinese Obama” (Xiao Jiguo) I can’t say.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/china/chinese-president-barack-obama-lookalike-xiao-jiguo-charges-1-500-n444251
Then there’s Indonesia’s former president, Joko Widodo:
https://nextshark.com/people-love-indonesias-president-looks-like-barack-obama
It would be interesting to get the researchers to analyze their DNA.
@RegularJoe thank you! This is quite interesting. I’d forgotten about the celebrity look-alikes you mentioned. I’m not surprised the studies aren’t there.