Do You Have a Doppelgänger?

You're a unique individual, with your own fingerprints and DNA. However, there's always a chance that your face, though distinctly yours, may look eerily similar to someone else in your family—or someone else out there in the world. Technically, a doppelgänger is defined as two non-family members who look alike. 

Is There Any Scientific Basis that Doppelgängers Exist?

Genes stored in DNA determine people's physical appearance, which is why people within families often look alike. You inherit the traits that make you who you are from your biological parents. Each parent gives one chromosome at conception. Your phenotype describes your physical appearance as influenced by your genes and your environment.  

You're probably familiar with identical twins sharing incredibly similar phenotypes because they share exactly the same genetic makeup. However, even non-twins within a family can still possess similar genetic combinations that result in nearly identical physical traits, creating the doppelgänger effect.

The areas of their DNA that are similar often include genes relating to facial features, which likely contributed to family members’ similar appearances. These kinds of physical traits include:

• Hair color, type, and thickness
• Eye color and iris pattern
• Freckles
• Skin Pigmentation
• Unibrow
• Cleft chin
• Earlobe attachment

How Likely Is It to Have a Doppelgänger?

If you label look-alikes as people bearing a striking resemblance rather than perfect matches, then doppelgängers are just a general way of describing a larger-than-average number of visual similarities people may share. But if you think of doppelgängers as people who share at least eight technical facial metrics, then there's an estimated 0.11% chance of any one person being one of two “twin strangers.”

Of course, that means the vast majority of people don't have a living doppelgänger walking around, though they probably share some traits with others. The fact is that having even one doppelgänger is incredibly rare, but possible.