你的哥哥姐姐是否比你更聰明大綱

Certain personality traits are often attributed to oldest, middle and youngest children. But a new study found that birth order itself had no effect on character, though it may slightly affect intelligence.

人們往往認爲，某些性格特徵是專屬於排行老大、排在中間或家裏最小的孩子的。然而一個新研究發現，出生順序與性格無關，但可能對智力有些許影響。

Researchers analyzed three large ongoing collections of data including more than 20,000 people: a British study that follows the lives of people who were born in one particular week in 1958, a German study of private households started in 1984 and a continuing study of Americans born between 1980 and 1984.

研究人員分析了來自2萬多人的三大組持續收集數據，其來源包括一份英國研究。該研究追蹤了1958年某一星期出生的人的生活狀況。還有在1984年開始、關於普通家庭的一份德國研究，和關於在1980至1984年間出生的美國人的一個持續研究。

They searched for differences in extroversion, emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness, self-reported intellect, IQ, imagination and openness to experience. They analyzed families with sisters and brothers, large and small age gaps and different numbers of siblings. But no matter how they spliced the data, they could find no association of birth order with any personality characteristic.

研究人員調查了在外向性、情緒穩定性、隨和性、責任心、自我報告式理解力、智力、想象力和對不同經歷的開放性方面的差異。他們分析了有不同的兄弟姐妹搭配、年齡差距和手足人數的家庭。但無論怎麼拼接數據，他們都看不到出生順序和性格特徵之間的任何聯繫。

The study, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, did find evidence that older children have a slight advantage in IQ scores, but the difference was apparent only in a large sample, with little significance for any individual.

在《美國國家科學院院刊》(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)上刊登的該項研究，確實發現證據表明年齡較大的兒童有輕微的智商優勢，但差異只有在大樣本才明顯，對個人來說意義不大。

The lead author, Julia M. Rohrer, a graduate student at the University of Leipzig, said that birth order can have an effect — if your older brother bullied you, for example.

主要作者、萊比錫大學(University of Leipzig)的研究生朱莉婭·M·羅勒(Julia M. Rohrer)說，出生順序就可能會有影響，比如你的哥哥可能會欺負你。

“But these effects are highly idiosyncratic,” she said. “There is no such thing as a typical older, middle or younger sibling. It’s important to stop believing that you are the way you are because of birth order.”

“但這些影響不具普遍性，”她說。“沒有哪些性格特質專屬於某個兄弟姐妹排行。重要的是，不要相信你之所以如此是因爲出生順序的關係。”