Get all your news in one place.

100's of premium titles.
One app.

Start reading

Get all your news in one place.

100's of premium titles. One news app.

Start reading

Bored Panda

Entertainment

Eligijus Sinkunas

“Am I Seeing Double?” 43 Times People Ran Into Their Identical Twin Stranger

Many of us like to think that we’re unique, special, and irreplaceable. That perspective quickly begins to shift when you accidentally spot a complete stranger who looks almost identical to you. They’re not a relative of yours, and yet, it’s almost like looking into a mirror.

Our team here at Bored Panda wanted to share this feeling with you, so we’ve compiled this list of photos that people snapped after seeing their real-life doppelgangers around the world. Keeps scrolling to see their bizarre photos of their look-alikes.

#1 Casually Met My Doppelgänger On A Boat Party

#2 There Must Be A Glitch In The Matrix, Or Am I Seeing Double?

#3 This Is Like Finding A Four Leaf Clover Twice

The BBC reports that, based on the research into the probability that two people’s faces would match, conducted by Teghan Lucas from the University of Adelaide, the odds of you coming across your doppelganger are incredibly low.

This is, of course, good news for the criminal justice system, though, as the chances of someone with your face impersonating you aren’t significant.

#4 2 Of My Friends Are Doppelgängers. They Live 700 Miles Away From Each Other, Have Never Met, And Were Both Blown Away

They are now Facebook friends.

#5 Doppelgängers

I’ve always felt the doppelgängers part of HIMYM wasn’t very believable… until I saw this today. Oh the odds… I’m a believer now.

#6 My Girlfriend Met Her Doppelganger

According to Lucas, the chances of you sharing just 8 dimensions with someone else are less than one in a trillion. Back when the world population was ‘just’ 7.4 billion people, this meant that there was a one in 135 chance of a single pair of doppelgangers existing.

That being said, a stranger’s facial features don’t have to be exactly the same as yours to resemble you. Features that are ‘close enough’ can create the illusion of you meeting your unrelated identical twin. What’s more, if you have ‘normal’ as opposed to ‘rare’ features, you’re more likely to bump into someone who looks similar to you.

#7 My GF Met Her Doppelganger And Found Out They Have Mountain Tattoos In The Same Spot

#8 Dewey And Dewier

#9 The Matrix Is Glitching Again

According to the BBC, when looking at a face and trying to figure out if they’re, for example, your friend, our brain uses an area called the fusiform gyrus to tie all the facial features 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 is thought to make recognising friends a lot more accurate than it would be if their features were assessed in isolation. Crucially, it also fudges the importance of some of the subtler details.”

#10 I See The Resemblance

#11 I Found My Doppelganger At Work

#12 Guy Goes To The Pharmacy, Turns Out There's His Doppelganger

As per statistician Nick Fieller, who works with The Computer-Aided Facial Recognition Project, most people “concentrate on superficial characteristics such as hair-line, hair style, eyebrows.” However, other research indicates that people focus on the eyes, mouth, and nose, in that order.

#13 Met My Doppelganger At A Concert

#14 Mini Me Stranger. Remarkable Resemblance

#15 In 2015, Irishwoman Shannon Lonergan Set Out To Find Her Doppelgänger And Using The Site 'Twin Strangers' She Encountered Swedish Woman Sara Nordstrom

The two met and became friends. The two looked so alike that Shannon's father could not tell them apart when they wore the same clothing.

“There are only so many genes in the world which specify the shape of the face and millions of people, so it’s bound to happen,” Winrich Freiwald, who studies face perception at Rockefeller University, said about the probability of finding someone else with similar features as you.

Meanwhile, Fieller adds: “For somebody with an ‘average’ face it’s comparatively easy to find good matches.”

#16 Last Night A Friend Of Mine Ran Into Two Doppelgangers Of His At A Concert

#17 I Found My Sister's Doppelgänger At The Coldplay Concert In Gothenburg

#18 Game Of Thrones Star Samwell Tarley Met His Doppelgänger!

The BBC states that the probability of meeting someone with the same features as you if you are a male with short blonde hair, brown eyes, a fleshy nose, a round face, and a full beard is a mere one in around 100,000, or 0.00001020%. This particular individual would have no fewer than 74,000 potential doppelgangers. Though, to be fair, many of these feature prevalence rates are not global. So these numbers are a rough estimate.

#19 My Friend Met Himself At The Beach

#20 My Friend Met His Doppelganger

#21 Drew's Doppelganger On Price Is Right

“I think most people have somebody who is a facial lookalike unless they have a truly exceptional and unusual face,” Fieller told the BBC.

Friewald has a similar opinion: “I think in the digital age which we are entering, at some point we will know because there will be pictures of almost everyone online.”

#22 My Friend Found Her Doppelganger At A Party

#23 My BF (Left) Met His Doppelganger At IKEA Last Night

#24 Met My Doppelganger

However, just because someone looks like you doesn’t automatically mean that they’re a long-lost relative from some forgotten branch of your family tree.

“It is entirely possible for two people with similar facial features to have DNA that is no more similar than that of two random people,” points out geneticist Lavinia Paternoster, from the University of Bristol.

#25 My Friend Met His Doppelganger

My friend Rob (on the left), who is a stand-up comedian, met his doppelganger last night. He was performing at a gig in London.

I couldn't believe it when I saw the likeness. Same amount of stubble! Same hair style! Same glasses! They are, as far as we know, unrelated!

#26 My Friend Met A Stranger At A Wedding That Looked Just Like Him And Was Wearing The Same Thing

#27 My Dad Met His Female Doppelganger

We, like many of you, have actually met complete strangers who looked almost identical to us. Numerous times, in fact! It’s an incredibly bizarre sensation to see a mirror image walking about.

Sometimes, it’s a younger or older version of ourselves. Or someone with a similar face but a different build. Other times, they’re about the same age, build, and fashion sense as us, and they could easily be our twins.

It really puts in perspective the fact that we’re not as unique as we think we are (or that we’d like to be) on this planet.

#28 What Are The Chances To Meet Another Ginger Person Who Looks Exactly Like You?

#29 You Can Tell Us Apart By Our Wrinkles Only

#30 Matrix Glitch On The Public Transport

Which of these photos left the biggest impression on you, dear Pandas?

How many doppelgangers of yourself have you spotted roaming about in the wide world? When was the last time you spotted your look-alike, and did you stop them to say ‘hello’?

Did the experience feel bizarre or confusing at all?

We can’t wait to hear your stories! Share them with us and everyone else in the comments.