The debate over birth order and personality traits has been ongoing for over a century. Are firstborns really more conscientious, and are youngest children inherently more creative? Or are these stereotypes based on outdated and flimsy evidence? After decades of conflicting theories, some recent studies have ruled out the idea that birth order is a strong factor in determining personality. But a groundbreaking new study released on Monday claims that, after all, birth order might be an influence on certain personality traits—namely cooperation.
Middle Children Shine In Cooperation Researchers from Canada have managed to gather data from more than 700,000 participants in what is regarded as one of the biggest studies ever on birth order and personality. The findings suggest that middle children scored higher on traits crucial for cooperation, such as agreeableness and honesty-humility, on average than their older and younger siblings. The study also shows that people from larger families tend to score higher on these traits, which implies that growing up in a bigger family could foster a more cooperative personality.
Although the differences are not dramatic, the research challenges the widely held belief that birth order and the number of siblings have little impact on personality development. Role Of Family Size In Shaping Personality In support of their argument, psychologists Michael Ashton of Brock University and Kibeom Lee from the University of Calgary, who conducted .