Abstract

Skin reflectance measurements on a sample of 154 Black and 191 White same‐sex twin pairs, attending Philadelphia area schools, are analyzed to determine the effects of genetic and environmental factors. The measurements obtained in July and August, on the forehead, inner upper arm, and flexor surface of the forearm with red, green, and blue filters, were reduced to one index which we call skin color. Analysis of this index using the path analysis of Rao et al. ('74) estimates the major variance components due to racial, residual genetic, and common environmental factors as 67%, 5%, and 22%, respectively.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)399-402
Number of pages4
JournalAmerican Journal of Physical Anthropology
Volume47
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 1977

Keywords

  • Path analysis
  • Skin color
  • Twins

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