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Inside a Disturbing Study of Twins with Nancy Segal

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Michael Shermer   Nov 9th, 2021

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The Michael Shermer Show # 225


In the 1960s, the head of a prominent New York City Child Development Center and a psychiatrist from Columbia University launched a study designed to track the development of twins given up for adoption and raised by different families. The disturbing catch? None of the adoptive parents had been told that they were raising a twin. The researchers insisted that the separation be kept secret.


In her new book, Nancy Segal reveals the investigators’ attempts to engage other agencies in separating twins, their efforts to avoid media exposure, their worries over informed consent issues and the steps taken toward avoiding lawsuits while hoping to enjoy the fruits of publication.


The details of what happened, until now, have been lost to the archives of history.