DETROIT – Despite their claims, older siblings are not smarter than younger ones, according to a new study.
Researchers studied 377,000 high school students to find out how birth order affected their personality development and intelligence. They found that firstborns had a slightly higher IQ than their later-born siblings, but only one point higher -- a practically meaningless difference.
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Firstborns also scored higher on certain personality traits like extroversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness, but the difference in scoring were "infinitesimally small."
Co-author of the study, Brent Roberts: "In some cases, if a drug saves 10 out of 10,000 lives, for example, small effects can be profound. But in terms of personality traits and how you rate them, a .02 correlation doesn't get you anything of note. You are not going to be able to see it with the naked eye. You're not going to be able to sit two people down next to each other and see the differences between them. It's not noticeable by anybody."
Co-author of the study, Rodica Damian: "The message of this study is that birth order probably should not influence your parenting, because it's not meaningfully related to your kid's personality or IQ."
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