Despite being unrelated, people can have an uncanny resemblance tostrangersdue to genetic similarities. It seems that these similar genetic traits can transcend generations, too, as fans have noticed that certaincelebritieslook nearly identical to some figures from the past.Diving deeper into this interesting phenomenon, ourBored Pandateam gathered many such pairs in the list below. To find them, all you have to do is scroll down. Image credits:60 Minutes Charles Burns was sentenced to 3 months at Newcastle City Gaol for the crime - false pretences. Image credits:The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Image credits:Netflix Is A Joke Nowadays, when we come across a stranger who looks nearly identical to us, at most we would laugh about it, snap a picture, and go on our own merry way. But hundreds of years ago, in folklore and ancient myths, seeing your doppelgänger was generally considered an omen of bad luck or even a sign of impending passing. The expression "doppelgänger" comes from German folklore, which translates to "double-goer"—an invisible spirit double of a living person. While the term itself was officially coined in the 18th century and later came to refer to uncanny lookalikes, myths of spirit doubles have persisted for thousands of years before that. Image credits:The Diary Of A CEO Image credits:Letterman Image credits:imdb.com By some, doppelgängers were even seen as the evil twin who encouraged their human counterpart to do bad and unlawful things. Such a gothic trope would often be included in novels by famous writers such as Hans Christian Andersen, Edgar Allan Poe, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky. In fact, this trope continues to be popular nowadays, like in the TV series The Vampire Diaries. Image credits:reelrave Image credits:Y Combinator Image credits:Late Night with Seth Meyers Nowadays, we usually don't have fear or think about bad omens when we face a person who resembles us in an uncanny way. What changed, you may be asking? Well, the portrayal of doppelgängers started to evolve in the media and became less of a trope about an individual curse and more about a broader society's struggle with identity. Plus, humankind improved its scientific understanding, and genetic similarities among unrelated people were discovered, explaining their uncanny resemblance. Image credits:imdb.com Image credits:The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Image credits:Jimmy Kimmel Live "There are so many people in the world right now, that eventually, people that share a higher number of [genetic] variants are expected," a molecular geneticist, Manel Esteller, explained. Further investigation by Nancy Segal, a professor of psychology, also found that even though doppelgängers share genetic similarities, they don't share personality traits. "These unrelated lookalikes were very, very different," she said. But they could have a similar manner of walking and even addictions, as the length of bones and addictive personality traits can be encoded in our genes. Image credits:Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen Image credits:Access Hollywood Image credits:Team Coco For example, aTimothée Chalamet lookalike might have a similar walk and voice to him but wouldn't necessarily have the same charisma and talent. "A lot of these people are going to be disappointed, because just looking like someone does not mean that you're going to be alike," Segal said. Image credits:The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Image credits:Jimmy Kimmel Live Image credits:sissygamache All this doppelgänger exploration has taken us from fear to pure amusement. Just last year, lookalike competitions took over the internet, with Timothée Chalamet, Paul Mescal, Harry Styles, and Glen Powell twins flooding the streets of cities all over England and America. British sociologist and celebrity cultural critic Ellis Cashmore believes these contests have spread like fire because our current society is defined by the idea that you can potentially do anything and be anything you want to be, which causes excitement. "What (the audience) is looking at is a transition in process," he said. "They know this isn't really Harry Styles on stage, but if someone who looks so much like him, could even be him, you're giving someone an indication of just how malleable and changeable we are as human beings. Humanity isn't fixed." Image credits:GQ Image credits:BuzzFeed Celeb Image credits:Remembrance of Things Past There's also the opportunity to build a real community. "These lookalike contests provide us with an opportunity to relate and form new relationships with people we might hitherto not know and would never cross paths with and wouldn't even say hello to them in a gym, in a club, in a bar, in a supermarket or anywhere," Cashmore added. "But the fact is, they share a common interest, and that is celebrity." Image credits:misslivalittle Image credits:FilMagicians After a photo from 1860 was put up for sale on eBay, many Internet users jumped on the striking similarity between the subject and John Travolta, claiming the actor is a reincarnation of the man in the image. Image credits:ScreenSlam Interesting, isn't it? What is even more fascinating is that scientists estimate that one face will have at least seven doppelgänger matches. Would you feel brave meeting at least one of them who looks almost identical to you? For some reason, I still find this idea unsettling. But if you don't and would like to know more about lookalikes, don't be shy and check out our previous article onglitches in the matrix. 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