I spent my time at university training to be a human geneticist as I have always been facilitated by how much nature (genetics) and nurture (the environment) contribute to who we are.
Full siblings are on average 50% genetically identical, but just as importantly they often share a common early environment so it can be difficult to unpick how much of their similarities are down nature and nurture. In fact, Matt & I only share 44.3% of our DNA (I got us both testing kits from 23andme.com one Christmas), but we did spent 16 of our formative years living together in the same home in Wanstead.
So how similar are we? There are lots of aspects of our lives that we could compare, but how about something uniquely personal like . . . phones.
This is Matt’s phone lock screen photo of Pumpkin (my Dad’s aging ginger Maine Coon Cat). Pumpkin is clearly his favourite family member given the he has more photos of her then just about any family member on his phone.
In fact, when Matt last came to Worcester in Nov 2022 to visit us he managed to take 7 pictures of our cat Freckles and exactly zero of the rest of us xD
Below is my phone lock screen photo of Freckles (our new to the family, but aging ginger shorthair cat). Freckles is clearly my favourite family member given I have more more photos of him in last year that he joined us than any other family member . . .
I’m not sure how much our shared love of cats is genetic, environmental or just a random coincidence, but I thought it was a fun observation. There is quite an interesting discussion on the extent to which pet ownership is genetic or environmental here in Psychology Today:
How Is Matt? 