Ezra Klein: You Win Again, Gid

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June 22, 2007

You Win Again, Gid

I figured that I was safe from the studies showing that first-born siblings are smarter than their younger brethren because my brother and I are both firstborn to our fathers. Sadly, though, the key difference comes not in biological factors, but in family dynamics. So it turns out he's smarter than me. Nuts.

Well, at least I'm better looking. And younger. And, according to the article, awesomer. "[Younger siblings] are more likely to participate in dangerous sports than eldest children, and more likely to travel to exotic places, studies find. They tend to be less conventional than firstborns, and some of the most provocative and influential figures in science spent their childhoods in the shadow of an older brother or sister."

June 22, 2007 | Permalink

Comments

I sat in a cafeteria where I worked in 1978 and listened to a friend tell me about a Norwegian study that showed that oldest children were smarter because they tended to associate with 2 adults..a high average knowledge base..and that the younger ones had a diluted knowledge base to associate with because of siblings.

I have repeated this explanation in appropriate situations for 30 years. Now I find out they have just rediscovered it.

It seems they used the same data.

Posted by: Mudge | Jun 22, 2007 9:50:20 AM

Nice bowl.
Depending on how you read the time stamp, some people mught think that's from May 26, 2002, instead of May 20, 1992.

Posted by: SP | Jun 22, 2007 9:51:33 AM

Like. That. Shirt.

Wait, that's from *92*?! Holy shit, I feel old.

Posted by: cerebrocrat | Jun 22, 2007 10:27:13 AM

I'm digging the paisley.

Posted by: Passing Shot | Jun 22, 2007 10:30:14 AM

I want that shirt so bad. Well, not that, that would be creepy and it's too small. But one just like it.

I'm the last of 5 children, but I was born so late I'm also a bit of an only child. I am the only one in my immediate family to live outside the US - at least voluntarily, my next-oldest sister lived in the Philippines b/c her husband was in the Air Force but American military bases are not foreign countries, no matter where they are. And I've been to more countries, period, than the rest of them.

Huh. It's disconcerting when you realize how much your free will conforms to standard patterns.

Posted by: Stephen | Jun 22, 2007 10:46:27 AM

But...if younger siblings are supposed to be unconventional, then if they are unconventional, that's really.. conventional... but ... but...Cretans are liars...

Posted by: Glenn | Jun 22, 2007 10:58:26 AM

So is working at the American Prospect a dangerous, exotic place? Do you risk life and limb when you divablog?

Posted by: Joseph | Jun 22, 2007 11:06:34 AM

I don't know my younger sister's IQ so I can't compare there, but by most other standards, I'd say that she's the smarter of the two of us -- she speaks multiple languages, has a Masters and a JD, always got better grades and into better schools than me, etc.

Posted by: fiat lux | Jun 22, 2007 11:34:13 AM

I'm smarter than my older brother. Anecdote! Data!

Posted by: SP | Jun 22, 2007 11:42:04 AM

I'll agree that you're better looking, Ezra. In fact, I had you ranked as best looking blogger in America until I saw Spencer Ackerman on bloggingheads. So now you're in second place.

Posted by: Kevin | Jun 22, 2007 11:46:57 AM

Good heavens - he's as cute as you but with dark hair (mmm) and possibly not ten years younger than me (yay?).

Data points: I went to a more exclusive school than my younger brother, but he got much better grades and the graduate degree. Meanwhile I'm the only liberal in a few generations on either side.

--Morfydd

Posted by: Morfydd | Jun 23, 2007 2:31:42 AM

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