The question of whether your personality is dependent on an individual’s position among siblings has been a long-standing question that has stumped the general public as well as the very scientists who have studied it. The consensus is a resounding yes, with common traits even being offered to describe someone and their disposition. However, recent studies have found evidence, or rather a lack of it, that may disprove that way of thinking.
If you participate regularly in social media, it is almost guaranteed that you are well aware of the stereotypes that some say decide the type of person you are. The most accepted view is that the oldest tends to be a responsible, but controlling, leader that will likely set the expectations for the rest to come. In contrast, the running joke is that the middle child is the forgotten one that the parents and siblings alike ignore, the peacemaker and rebel at the same time. To complete the family they bring the charming but self-centered youngest who tends to hog all the attention.
Recent studies claim that while birth order may play into some of these stereotypes, indications from data found in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journal, show that the “development of personality is less determined by the role within the family of origin than previously thought”. By combining large datasets collected across three western nations, scientists were able to confirm that firstborns score higher on objectively measured intelligence and similar results with self-reported intelligence. However, they were unable to find any consistent birth-order effects on classifications such as extraversion, emotional stability, conscientiousness, or imagination.
That is all dependent on your definition of what personality is. “Sulloway’s niche differentiation theory of birth order effects suggests that successive children are most different from the sibling preceding them in an attempt to be unique, obtain attention, resources. etc. From this perspective, personality is a strategy that shapes how you interact with the world around you,” explains Dr. Catherine Salmon, professor of psychology at the University of Redlands. From this perspective, personality is more of a tool to use than characteristics of an individual’s character. If that is the case then the opposite is true.
Even if you are an only child, Dr. Salmon explains that “ parental expectations and pressure can be high, driving them [only children] toward traits shared with firstborns.” They are also more influenced by the friend groups they are in. You can argue over both sides but in the end, siblings do play an important role in the way we grow and develop and while they cannot be directly linked, the way you treat others does have an effect on those around you.
