Being the older sibling makes you smarter, science says

If you’re the first born in your family, you’re probably smarter than your younger siblings.

According to new research by the University of Mainz and Leipzig University, eldest children tend to have the highest IQs.

The research, which surveyed over 20,000 people, also found that IQ drops about 1.5 points with each successive sibling.

Researchers have suggested the results are behavioural rather than biological, with the intelligence boost in older siblings being down to their own teaching of younger brothers and sisters.

Julie Rohrer, who co-authored the research, said: “One theory is that following children ‘dilute’ the resources of their parents. While the firstborn gets full parental attention, at least for some months or years, late-borns will have to share from the beginning.

“Another possible factor is described by the tutoring hypothesis: A firstborn can ‘tutor’ their younger siblings, explaining to them how the world works and so on.

“Teaching other people has high cognitive demands – the children need to recall their own knowledge, structure it and think of a good way to explain it to younger siblings, which could provide a boost to intelligence for some firstborns.”

The data was collected from three national surveys, one of which in the UK, and used the results of IQ and personality tests.

Interestingly, the research seems to debunk the age-old theory that siblings differ in personality, with older siblings being shy and younger siblings being loud and extroverted,

While no consistent personality differences were noted, though, the results observed a stark drop in intelligence with each successive sibling.

If you’re the youngest, sucks to be you.