The first born are smarter thread

InquilineKea
Tue, 26 Jun 2007 12:24:33 +0000

Anyhow, this study ONLY analyzes differences in IQ. Frank Sulloway’s “Born to Rebel” analyzes differences in PERSONALITY TRAITS associated with first/later-borns.

It may be that certain personality traits between elder and younger siblings are more differentiated than IQ is, since it is thought that those personality traits are precisely the reason why older children have higher IQs (by the way , correlation between parental and child IQ is 0.8 - an IQ rise in 2.2 points is VERY significant). While children with the personality traits that characterize later-borns have personality traits that do not promote higher IQs, some of them still do have higher IQs than their older siblings for whatever reason. So while they contribute to the differences in personality between first and later borns, they do not contribute to the differences in IQ.

Just because my brother has higher grades and test scores than me doesn’t mean that he is more academic than me. Statistically speaking, of course, academic ability is precisely measured by means of grades and test scores. Most of the time, higher grades and test scores correlate with academic ability. I’m just an anomaly (perhaps it’s because I have Asperger’s Syndrome combined with some symptoms of ADD - I’m the first in my family with any history of mental illness) - maybe those mental illnesses often contribute to statistical anomalies. That being said, there are intellectuals who showed their abilities independently of either grades and test scores - and they did not have grades OR test scores commensurate to their abilities.