HEY GANG, DO YOU DOPPEL?
In October I saw the bank Wilco perform at Radio City. Remember, when concerts were a thing. While, I could rehash the joys of seeing a mid-tempo-dad-rock-band play the hits, a far more interesting discussion is one about the crowd at this show.
Looking around Radio City prior to curtain, I noticed that everyone kinda looked like me. Behind me was a guy who could double as my uncle or at least a distant cousin. The guy to my left, just me with a beard. To my right, a version of me with more boxy glasses. Super weird right? Or maybe there is a stereotypical Wilco fan and maybe that fan looks identical to me.
Leading me to ponder:
At a specific event like a concert, are you self-selecting into a group with similar tastes and does that lead you to encounter more doppelgängers?
For reference, a doppelgänger is a non-biologically related look-alike or double.
After consulting with a subject matter expert, the answer appears to likely be yes.
Can you spot me? It’s a tough one. Here’s a hint - look stage right.
The above hypothesis led to a further question:
Do some people’s appearance make them more likely to have an unrelated twin?
Said differently, are some individuals more likely to have a doppelgänger?
Standardizing facial features allows for a simple calculation (male x brown eyes x blonde x round face x fleshy nose x short hair x full beard) that reveals the probability of a person possessing the exact same features is about 1 in 100,000 (0.00001020%).
The issue here is that people can perceive faces differently, meaning that just because a person's face isn’t exactly – mathematically speaking – the same, people can perceive them as the same because they gauge the sum of the face instead of each individual part. This explains why many of us think identical twins look exactly alike when – in reality – there are usually many differences.
To ensure that a face can be recognized in any context, the brain employs an area known as the “fusiform gyrus” to tie all the pieces together. If you compare it to finding a country on a map, this is like checking it has a border with France and a coast. This holistic ‘sum of the parts’ perception makes recognizing friends a lot more accurate than it would be if their features were assessed in isolation.
I GOT MY MIND SET ON YOU
Be aware your mind can play tricks on you.
When you see someone’s lookalike they may appear a perfect clone, but if you were to get them together side by side, you might not feel that they are doppelgängers.
Yet, sometimes your mind isn’t playing tricks on you.
You are not incorrect to think one of Pete Davidson’s former girlfriends was just him in a wig.
LET’S RECAP:
According to Nick Fieller, a statistician involved in The Computer-Aided Facial Recognition Project.
If you are an individual with an “average” face it’s comparatively easy to find people that look similar to you i.e. doppelgängers.
Think you have a celebrity doppelgänger? There is a new app called Gradient that can help you.
Please be aware this not an endorsement of said app, as I am not sure what they do with your image making it potentially unsafe to download.