你的哥哥姐姐是否比你更聪明

　　人们往往认为，某些性格特征是专属于排行老大、排在中间或家里最小的孩子的。然而一个新研究发现，出生顺序与性格无关，但可能对智力有些许影响。

　　Researchers analyzed¹ three large ongoing² 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.

　　研究人员分析了来自2万多人的三大组持续收集数据，其来源包括一份英国研究。该研究追踪了1958年某一星期出生的人的生活状况。还有在1984年开始、关于普通家庭的一份德国研究，和关于在1980至1984年间出生的美国人的一个持续研究。

　　你的哥哥姐姐是否比你更聪明

　　They searched for differences in extroversion³, emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness⁴, 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 siblings⁶. But no matter how they spliced⁷ the data, they could find no association of birth order with any personality characteristic.

　　研究人员调查了在外向性、情绪稳定性、随和性、责任心、自我报告式理解力、智力、想象力和对不同经历的开放性方面的差异。他们分析了有不同的兄弟姐妹搭配、年龄差距和手足人数的家庭。但无论怎么拼接数据，他们都看不到出生顺序和性格特征之间的任何联系。

　　The study, in Proceedings⁸ 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《美国国家科学院院刊》(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)上刊登的该项研究，确实发现证据表明年龄较大的儿童有轻微的智商优势，但差异只有在大样本才明显，对个人来说意义不大。

　　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 bullied⁹ you, for example.

　　主要作者、莱比锡大学(University of Leipzig)的研究生朱莉娅·M·罗勒(Julia M. Rohrer)说，出生顺序就可能会有影响，比如你的哥哥可能会欺负你。

　　“But these effects are highly idiosyncratic,” she said. “There is no such thing as a typical older, middle or younger sibling⁵. It’s important to stop believing that you are the way you are because of birth order.”

　　“但这些影响不具普遍性，”她说。“没有哪些性格特质专属于某个兄弟姐妹排行。重要的是，不要相信你之所以如此是因为出生顺序的关系。”

分享到：