If anything that stimulates family communication is a good thing, then the study on how birth order affects intelligence is a very good thing. As soon as the news broke last week, hordes of firstborns were on their computers e-mailing their younger siblings to let them know what scientists have concluded: Eldest kids generally have higher IQs than those who come later in the reproductive line. Let’s just be glad it didn’t come out Thanksgiving week.
This discovery will probably come as no surprise to George W. Bush, Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter, all of whom are firstborns. The apparent boost to presidential ambitions may augur well for Hillary Clinton, who was the first in her family. It’s not so auspicious for John McCain and Mitt Romney, who weren’t.
Students of the subject — at least second- and third-born students of the subject — point out that other notable eldest children are Stalin, Mussolini and Saddam Hussein. Firstborns, however, can claim an outsized share of Nobel Prizes.
Let’s not exaggerate the effect on intelligence. According to the study of nearly a quarter of a million Norwegian men published last week in Science, the average difference between Child No. 1 and Child No. 2 is two or three IQ points, which for many people is less than the mental boost of a cup of coffee.
Runner-up kids (who happen to constitute a majority of the Tribune editorial board) can also take solace that brains aren’t everything. Scientists theorize that, as Frank Sulloway of the Institute of Personality and Social Research in Berkeley, Calif., puts it, “Firstborns and later-borns are pursuing different strategies for parental investment.”
Younger children, confronted by a brainy older sibling, may gravitate to other ways of distinguishing themselves, such as athletic prowess, artistic creativity or charm. (Yes, Sis, charm — which is why Mom really did like me best.)
But why the first arrival tends to be smarter is an open question.
The scientists say their data prove that family dynamics, not biological factors, are decisive. One plausible theory is that firstborns gain greater understanding of what they know through tutoring their younger siblings (or perhaps by bossing them around).
If that theory is correct, later-borns get the last laugh. If you’re so smart, you owe it all to us.
