Why First-Borns Have Higher IQs

Post Reply New Topic

Full article

Actually, I'm pretty sure my little sister's is higher than mine. She tests higher on the same tests.

It does say later on in the article that the theory is not as solid as it makes out. I thought it was a fascinating article, however.

I'm a first born to 2 siblings and I don't have an above average IQ.....

ha! I've noticed that, sort of (I'm not one myself unfortunately), as well as youngest children usually being the best looking (maybe to compensate for lesser IQs...?). of course it's not a rule but just an observation I made based on several families.

My youngest sister is in some ways a duplicate of me. Not diagnosed, but she's SO on the spectrum. And in other ways she has abilities I never did - she could repeat complicated tunes before she could talk. (OK, so we were both really late talkers ...)

Not that a random exception invalidates a theory ... just felt like chiming in.

Eh, using their correlation logic, all women must be pretty friggin' dumb since there's never been a woman president, never been a woman on the moon, and most politicians and scientists are not women.

Birth order matters in the same way gender matters- only in the way you are treated by your parents and society. It has nothing to do with IQ.

I've heard of the study (studies?) suggesting that the first-born has a higher IQ, but other (better) studies have not corroborated the point. It's possible, but I have my doubts.

Also, achievement is necessarily related to IQ in any way.

Hey, I've noticed that too. My sister is beautiful. And my husband is way better looking than his big brother. Weird.

But there is a female Head of State (just not YOUR state) and a female Prime Minister, not to mention a glut of female politicians, and women in space. They haven't been to the moon because NOBODY is going. If they go again, its just as likely a woman will go. Very high level politicians world wide are female. Lots of Doctors and Scientists too...

I was just pointing out how faulty the logic they use is:

I'm the firstborn but my brother usually outperforms me academically, musically an in verious test. Actually in basically everything.

My brother (3 years younger) and I once had a discussion about whether or not we should share our IQ scores and GRE scores with each other. We talked about it for a long time, going over possible implications, each growing increasingly afraid of having a lower set of scores.

So, after a few beers, we each took a scrap of paper, wrote our scores down, and exchanged them. They turned out to be exactly the same!

I think that first-borns tend to be more mature at a given age than younger siblings. The first-born gets the majority of exposure to the parents. A younger child gets exposure to parents, but also to older siblings (who are not as mature as the parents- usually)

I don't really agree with your second paragraph there. Men and women are clearly physiologically different, so I don't see why their brains shouldn't, on average, be different as well. I also think it's likely that conditions a baby experiences in the womb are going to affect the child's development, so I don't think birth order is insignificant either.

Btw, I don't think you need to be especially intelligent to succeed in politics these days, so I wouldn't feel too miffed about women being underrepresented there.

hmm...I seem to recall another survey that found that 2nd-born children were more inventive and creative.

My younger 'bro is definitely better-looking than I am. I'm probably smarter, because he doesn't have the patience to learn anything that doesn't relate to being in a band...

I'm better-behaved because I have AS, rather than being 1st-born. To be honest, I was just better at not being caught...