What do you guys think, are first borns smarter than their siblings?

[Odette]

Read-
http://health.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=450581

[Collin Li]

I believe there are strong evolutionary pressures that prioritise the first-born baby over the health of future potential babies.

[memka]

In my case, yes. However I'm not sure whether this is the case in general.

[jess3254]

That was an interesting read. It'd be interesting to read the actual studies which were published and see how they measured this and how large their study was etc.

This is true in my family. My eldest sister is extremely intelligent and the most academically orientated, however she is fairly shy and somewhat withdrawn. She is extremely serious; she hardly ever jokes around.

My sister who was born 18 months after is somewhat the same, however she is a little more relaxed and sociable. My brother (2nd youngest), was rebellious and not at all academically orientated until year 12.

I am the youngest... lol. I am a mixture of everything

[Odette]

I'm not too sure, because well i have cousins who are not the first born and they're smarter than their older siblings... well in school anyway, so i guess that doesn't mean anything because education is not the only measure of intelligence.

My youngest sister would probably be the smartest, but i don't know yet she's only 6, but she's like an adult in a child's body. One could argue that the youngest could end up the smartest, because they have their siblings to help them along the way, in addition to their parents, not only that they tend to grow up a lot faster than their siblings. Who knows really ^^

[Matt89]

I dont believe in the concept at all. For every first born i know who is the smartest, i know of another family where a younger sibling is the smartest.

[enwiabe]

I'd say I'm pretty equally matched with my brother. We came within .05 of each other for ENTER scores. Albeit, we have different talents. He's Arts/Law I'm Eng/Sci. But really, there's no great deal of difference. I find it difficult to believe that there is any genetic weighting on intelligence as a consequence of order of birth. If at all, it would be environmental, but the same opportunities that my brother had, I was afforded, which could be why we turned out roughly the same.

[Eriny]

I'm going to say yes, but I'm also insanely biased.

I think I'm much more focussed, responsible and conscientious than my younger siblings. I've always been interested in reading and learning and so on, and I've read before that often the second born (particularly if they are the same gender as the first born) will either emulate the behaviour of their older sibling or will do the exact opposite and build an identity completely seperate from the first born, so then they don't have to face comparison. My sister must have done the latter. I also think that my younger brother is fairly smart (it's probably a bit early to tell - he's only 11) but he's extremely unmotivated and gets distracted really easily (maybe because he's 11).

[bubble sunglasses]

 Curiously, I can think of several pairs of same-sex siblings where the older one has done better and several girls who have, thus far, outshone their older brothers

[RD]

I'd say I'm pretty equally matched with my brother. We came within .05 of each other for ENTER scores.

Damnit.. my bro got 99.90, I got no chance of getting near him

[Odette]

I'd say I'm pretty equally matched with my brother. We came within .05 of each other for ENTER scores.

Damnit.. my bro got 99.90, I got no chance of getting near him

Aww there there.
I know what it's like, earlier this year my cousin from overseas calls and asked me what i'm doing i was like accounting, and then i asked her what she was doing she said medicine... i felt so dumb, because everyone in my family is like a doctor/lawyer/research scientist/surgeon.. and here you get me who's becoming an accountant.

[AppleXY]

LOL. I betcha one of my relatives is gonna get like 99.95 and then the msg will pass around in the lankan community and sooner or later I will get bashed when I get my ENTER (because, i'm not even sure I'll even get 99, nonetheless 99.95! LOL )

[RD]

I'd say I'm pretty equally matched with my brother. We came within .05 of each other for ENTER scores.

Damnit.. my bro got 99.90, I got no chance of getting near him

Aww there there.
I know what it's like, earlier this year my cousin from overseas calls and asked me what i'm doing i was like accounting, and then i asked her what she was doing she said medicine... i felt so dumb, because everyone in my family is like a doctor/lawyer/research scientist/surgeon.. and here you get me who's becoming an accountant.

yeah same goes for my family.

[Odette]

Redwan-I guess we just need to ignore everyone else, and do whatever makes us happy ^_^

[Collin Li]

People talking of their counter-examples doesn't really mean much. Of course there will be deviations. It's more about whether you can say that, on average, being a first-born explains a significant part of your intelligence.