Time to call that younger sibling to brag

This article has been circulating the web for the last couple of days, but I just heard about it today. There's new, solid evidence out there that older siblings have an average of 3 IQ points higher than the next sibling in age, with the eldest having the highest IQ and the youngest... well, you get the point.

(Take a look at the Brady Bunch staircase for a second; now think about poor, young Cindy Brady's IQ.)

The new findings, from a landmark study published Friday, showed that eldest children had a slight but significant edge in I.Q. — an average of three points over the closest sibling. And it found that the difference was not because of biological factors but the psychological interplay of parents and children.

Psychologists say that the specific reason for the highest is that older siblings usually take a roll of teacher, which forces them, even if subconsciously, to know the material well, but also learn it on their own.

Something else is at work, Dr. Zajonc said, and he has found evidence that tutoring — a natural role for older siblings — benefits the teacher more than it does the student. “Explaining something to a younger sibling solidifies your knowledge and allows you to grow more extensively,” he said. “The younger one is asking questions, and challenging meanings and explanations, and that will contribute to the intellectual maturity of the older one.” (Only children receive the benefit of more parental attention but miss the opportunity to tutor a younger brother or sister.)

The theory also explains why younger siblings are more adept at taking risks based on information acquired not from personal experiences.

Younger siblings often have something more to pass on than the tricks of their favorite hobby, or the philosophy behind their social charm. Evidence suggests that younger siblings are more likely than older ones to take risks based on their knowledge and instincts.

I find this part especially fascinating because I've always envied the fact that my brother did not have to endure embarrassing first-born rites of passage, like thinking Metallica and Dave Matthews Band were bands worth a shit, but turns out I got some benefit out of it, too. Honestly, I'll trade my three measly extra IQ points if I could expunge buying those CDs from my memory. Ugh.