Does Birth Order Matter?

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Amanda Ricci English Composition II Nathan Breen 13 November 2011 Does Birth Order Matter? As a child, I tended to steal the spotlight from my older sister. It was always my big head right in front of the camera on the home movies, and I was always the loudest one in the room at family gatherings. While I’ve calmed down a little since then, people still tell me I’m the life of the party, which according to recent research is only one of the many traits held by youngest children. But how can my sister be so different from me? The quiet more laid back type, my sister would rather have the spotlight on someone else instead of herself. Is it all because of the order we were born in? If my sister was born after me, would she be the more outspoken one? Recent research seems to prove exactly that. There are a lot more differences between siblings than what was once thought. A person’s IQ and relationship choices have also been directly related to birth order in addition to personality. A new breakthrough study done in Norway has just confirmed that birth order does in fact have an effect on your IQ. Melinda Wenner from Scientific American Mind and Benedict Carey from the New York Times both report on this study and use it to prove that birth order indeed effects IQ and therefore effects your personality. The study concluded that the eldest children tend to have IQ’s that are higher than their siblings- an average of three points higher (Carey). It also found that the difference was not because of biological factors, or genes that were inherited, but instead were the result of sociological interplay of parents and other siblings. Both articles defend the findings by explaining that eldest children teach, or tutor their younger siblings naturally. This, in turn, helps the information solidify in their minds creating room for expansion of deeper more abstract
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