this post was submitted on 21 Apr 2026
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[–] luthis@lemmy.nz 72 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Strange, almost like phenotype is dependent on genotype?

[–] Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 62 points 1 week ago (5 children)

You're telling me people whose genetics make them look similar have similar genetics???

[–] paraphrand@lemmy.world 26 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Not proven until now.

These “duh” comments are always here in these situations.

[–] Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

We're just joking around here my friend :) of course it's important to confirm, still funny every time

[–] paraphrand@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I hope so, that’s good to hear. Some people seem so pissed off when making such comments about “useless” studies. 😔

[–] Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

People in text always sound more pissed off than they were. That mostly has to do with your expectations though ;)

[–] fartographer@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You think this sounds angry???

[–] partofthevoice@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] fartographer@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

sorry. I thought I was being friendly. Perhaps you'd prefer periods as my punctuation. I hope you're happy.

[–] partofthevoice@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 week ago

I too have autism.

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[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (4 children)
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[–] angrystego@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

It seems this includes genes that don't play a direct role in the formation of facial features.

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It is still interesting. I wonder if epigenetics plays a larger role, or if face look is tied to other random traits.

[–] angrystego@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

The article says epigenetics don't play much of a role in it, it's all genetics.

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[–] ChillCapybara@discuss.tchncs.de 27 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Researchers say the findings may also someday help police investigators conjure up the faces of suspects from their DNA samples. But that potential application wades into murky ethical territory

There it is

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[–] NullPointerException@lemmy.ca 16 points 1 week ago (6 children)

DNA has a limited number of genes. Considering the enormous amount of functions they need to encode, the number of genes for each function becomes relatively small. 8 billion people and thousands of generations, we’re bound to have duplicates.

[–] Brocon@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago

I would say it's even smaller in number. Because some combinations would not work and might kill you.

[–] angrystego@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

Yes, but the article says that certain combinations occur more often that if it was random. People with similar faces tend to have similar genes that are nor related to facial features.

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[–] veniasilente@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

...We all look like 98% similar.

[–] EntheoNaut@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

they all look the same..

thinks some alien, prolly

[–] Ageroth@reddthat.com 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] EntheoNaut@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I love this short story!

[–] hypna@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If different people with similar visual characteristics have similar behavioral characteristics, doesn't that imply that perhaps we can judge a book by its cover?

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[–] temporal_spider@masto.ai 9 points 1 week ago (2 children)

@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.

[–] borth@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Smeagol666@crazypeople.online 4 points 1 week ago

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.

[–] RegularJoe@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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.

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.

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[–] kerrigan778@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Bad news for people that look like famous serial killers.

[–] Tiral@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

So that's why I want to make people lamp shades so bad? /s

[–] OldGrayDog@fedinsfw.app 6 points 1 week ago

Or maybe we're living in a simulation and whatever is generating it only has a finite number of characters. 😲

[–] Skankhunt420@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I've wondered this about people who act the same. They also tend to have some of the same facial expressions and mannerisms.

Maybe like our brains have certain tempaltes of personalities that we alter along the way. A starter personality of sorts.

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I mean there's this town in rural [state my family had a farm in but now we don't hallelujah farm work is hard] that everyone looks like me because, well, go back far enough and all 500 of them and me are related. First time I went to the old farm it was frightening. Like walking into a clone factory.

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[–] StoneyPicton@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 week ago

Nice to see research shared like this, thanks. I've always been fascinated by facial similarities. The other thing I often look at, especially when pronounced, is the difference in the two hemispheres of the face.

[–] ssfckdt@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This kinda feels like a "duh." Or a "Well, makes sense"

[–] dovahking@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Genetics, I can understand. But lifestyles? How?

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[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 4 points 1 week ago

I always wondered about this in terms of I have known some types of folks that look similar and actually often have similar social traits and this includes me to.

[–] Crozekiel@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Why didn't they give FB-007 shirts?

[–] RegularJoe@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Any qualified 007 could report to Q for cutting edge clothing and gear?

[–] rainbowbunny@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

How similar is DNA from convergent evolution animals?

I mean, my uncle (who spent very little time with his bio father) has all the same mannerisms as him. As do I and my mother and one of my brothers. Some of it is that we inherited similar skeletal structure so our posture is similar. Some of it, I dunno.

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