No, the elders are not smarter than their younger siblings

Who is the smartest, the most smiling, the less clumsy? The eldest, the youngest or the youngest? The subject is often debated in the hearts of siblings, even if it means coming to blows. The study published in the journal of the American Academy of Sciences, PNAS, should ease tensions: the order of birth does not have much impact on the personality or the IQ.

The authors of this work, who work at the University of Leipzig, Germany, selected a large sample. 20,000 adults living in Germany, the United States or the United Kingdom participated in the research. Using this number, researchers were able to compare the impact of birth order within a family and between families. And the conclusions are likely to disappoint the apprentice psychologists who associated the place in the siblings with extraversion, shyness or curiosity. Being the oldest or the youngest has no impact on core character traits or mood stability.

The authors do observe an impact on intelligence. But it was the volunteers themselves who declared it. Seniors thus claim to have a larger vocabulary and less difficulty in grasping abstract concepts. As the measurements are not objective, these results should be taken with a grain of salt, according to the latest author of the study, Stefan Schmukle. “This effect on intelligence reproduces very well in large samples, but it is very insignificant at an individual level, because it is very small. And even if the average intelligence scores decline, in four out of ten cases, the youngest is still smarter than his elder, ”he explains in a press release. There is therefore no need to show off in front of your big brother or your big sister. You could expose yourself to severe disappointment.