Being a second born.... I'm not sure I want to agree with this. And besides, my younger brother told me that Dad told him he was the smartest! (Do we think there might be some sibling stuff going on here?)
And what about the story about Europe's most fertile man from three years ago on this blog? If he has had 98 children, is the 98th less smart than the first? Or is it all about doting parents and not aged telomeres? I wonder if it's worth the investigation. It was always the mother that was blamed for problems in the past, but aged sperm also contributes to issues.
Here’s one to fuel sibling rivalries: New research suggests the order in which brothers and sisters are born may influence their relative intelligence. Researchers at the Universities of Edinburgh and Sydney analyzed data on roughly 5,000 American children, who were followed from pregnancy until age 14. They found that firstborns consistently outperformed their younger siblings on IQ tests—including for reading, matching letters, and picture vocabulary—and that the disparities began just 12 months after birth. The team speculates that this advantage may be traced back to the extra attention doting parents give to their first child. “First-time parents tend to want to do everything right and generally have a greater awareness of their interactions with and investments in the firstborn,” the study’s co-author, Jee-Yeon Lehmann, tells Today.com. With each additional child that parents have, Lehmann explains, they tend to have less time and energy to devote to activities they perceive as nonessential, such as reading, arts and crafts, and playing musical instruments. Another factor could be that first-time mothers are less likely to drink, smoke, or take part in other risky behaviors during pregnancy.
From my favorite news source, the distilled Week Magazine, March 3rd.
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