Thomas J. Bouchard
| Thomas J. Bouchard Jr. | |
|---|---|
| Born |
October 3, 1937 Manchester, New Hampshire |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Psychology |
| Institutions | University of Minnesota |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley |
| Doctoral advisor | Donald MacKinnon, Harrison G. Gough |
| Doctoral students | Wendy Johnson Matt McGue |
| Known for | Intelligence, Behavior genetics, Personality |
Thomas J. Bouchard Jr. (born October 3, 1937) is a professor emeritus of psychology and director of the Minnesota Center for Twin and Adoption Research at the University of Minnesota. Bouchard received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1966.
Bouchard's longitudinal studies of twins reared apart are world-renowned. His research topics have been diverse - ranging from sociology to human resources, as have the methods he has used: from large scale quantitative analyses and meta-analyses establishing the increase in heritability of intelligence with time, to case-studies of twins reared apart. This latter work demonstrated numerous similarities in identical twins separated at birth and living without knowledge of the other twin for many decades. The detailed reports of similarity went a long way to answer critics of twin studies.
In 1979, Bouchard came across an account of twins (Jim Springer and Jim Lewis) who had been separated from birth and were reunited at age 39. "The twins," Bouchard later wrote, "were found to have married women named Linda, divorced, and married the second time to women named Betty. One named his son James Allan, the other named his son James Alan, and both named their pet dogs Toy." Bouchard arranged to study the pair, assembling a team and applying for a grant to the Pioneer Fund in 1981, stating, "Our findings continue to suggest a very strong genetic influence on almost all medical and psychological traits."
This work became the Minnesota Study of Identical Twins Reared Apart (MISTRA), better known as the Minnesota Twins Project. Time, U.S. News and World Report, the New York Times, and various TV programs have reported Bouchard’s conclusions that shyness, political conservatism, dedication to hard work, orderliness, intimacy, extroversion, conformity, and a host of other social traits are largely heritable. Bouchard is the author of more than 170 publications. According to the Web of Science, Bouchard's works have been cited over 5500 times and he has an h-index of 33.
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