Birth Order Has No Effect on Personality
The Internet is littered with articles touting the traits birth order effects, but a recent study in Germany has determined that there is no such thing as a typical first born, middle, or youngest child.
The researchers examined five key traits – extroversion, emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and imagination – via data from 20,000 people from three nations in what is considered the largest and most comprehensive studay on this topic to date.
These finding contradict common beliefs, as well as scientific theories, and indicate that the development of personality is less determined by the role within the family than previously thought.
Published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study did support earlier research that the first child in the family is likely to be the most intelligent.
From PNAS.org : By combining large datasets from three national panels, we confirmed the effect that firstborns score higher on objectively measured intelligence and additionally found a similar effect on self-reported intellect. However, we found no birth-order effects on extraversion, emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness, or imagination.Most important, however, we consistently found no birth-order effects on extraversion, emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness, or imagination. On the basis of the high statistical power and the consistent results across samples and analytical designs, we must conclude that birth order does not have a lasting effect on broad personality traits outside of the intellectual domain.
