June 22, 2007

Take a wild guess who's doing all the emailing.

Here's the current top 2 on the NYT most emailed list:
1. Study Says Eldest Children Have Higher I.Q.s
2. Research Finds Firstborns Gain the Higher I.Q.

Don't you just know every firstborn is emailing it to his younger siblings with some smirky message?

17 comments:

mean aunt said...

Except that my younger siblings are waaay smarter than I am.

But then again it is science so it must be true.

Kirby Olson said...

The study also says that younger children have a lot more adventurousness, and that really breathtaking breakthroughs in knowledge are often by younger siblings.

The study is already within the Norwegian population, and perhaps over there the eldest use their siblings for target practice when kicking soccer balls or something and so all the concussions are bringing down the IQs in successors. At any rate, two to three points is within the standard deviation of most IQ tests, so I don't think this matters.

Nevertheless, I'm sending it to my younger siblings right away.

Jennifer said...

I'd send it to my younger brother but he'd send back some brilliant response as, like TabithaRuth, he's way smarter than I am. I'm also more adventurous than he is. So, I can make no use of this opportunity. Unfortunately.

David53 said...

Yeah,
My older brother is smarter than I am but I've had way more fun than him!

I'm Full of Soup said...

I am not the oldest so maybe I need you to explain this to me. Don't the two headlines essentially mean the same thing?

Bruce Hayden said...

Finally we have some documentation about something that we have known about for a long time.

So, yes, I will send this to at least some of my younger siblings. At least one of them doesn't do well with this sort of thing, so I will probably spare him.

The usual comeback that I usually get from the second born is that oldest were often left out to die in ages (way) past, presumably due to the higher incidence (at least according to him) of birth caused brain damage.

Oh, for a return of primogeniture.

Anonymous said...

My guess is it's the stupid younger kids mailing it to the smarter older kids with a snarky message.

Much like how studies have found that most stupid bloggers don't realize they're stupid.

Unknown said...

there are plenty of studies that point to the last born being by far the most adventurous and creative.

Last Born Traits

* Risk takers
* Idealists
* Good sense of humor
* Hard working
* Immature
* Attention seeking
* Secretive
* Sensitive

Christy said...

Were I to mail it to my younger siblings one of them would surely cite Benjamin Franklin as to why that study is a crock. 'Sides, haven't we all concluded that IQ is the Mismeasure of Man.

ethan said...

Why do you keep deleting my compliments about your

SWEET TITTIES

Ann?

Jeez.

Unknown said...

Take a wild guess what birth order placement is most likely to read the New York Times.

PatHMV said...

Actually, Ann, one of my younger sisters e-mailed this report to ME today, saying, very nicely, "guess we already knew this."

ricpic said...

The eldest crush the youngest,
And all those in between;
And then parade like driven snow
Upon the worldly scene.

Beth said...

We span 20 years among the seven of the kids in my family. I'm the baby, now 47. The two eldest were out of the house and in the Army by the time I was born, and not part of my life growing up; we've grown closer as adults. The oldest barely finished high school, but I don't doubt he's smarter than most of us. He can learn or do anything he sets his mind to -- build a house, fix a diesel engine, plant and maintain an orchard, speak and write several languages. He put up a MySpace page last year, and I'm gaining a whole new dimension to my sense of family history from it, and getting to know him all over again.

Brent said...

I am a first born, married to a middle (4th of 8)born.

Boy, is she different than me!

Now I know it must be entirely due to birth order!

My 4 younger brothers may not have my IQ, but they all make more money than me.

?

hdhouse said...

It's a joke. The modern New York yuppie family has

ONE CHILD

Hence.....

Daryl said...

Of course it's true.

This isn't the first time a study has come out showing this.

People get so fussy about IQ.

Just admit it: firstborns are smarter, on average, than the spawn who crawl out after them.

Law professors, of all people, have absolutely no right to complain about the genetic IQ lottery. You won it! Being a sore winner is just unseemly.

Then start admitting to the other SCIENTIFIC findings about IQ, namely the racial averages.

Why do you have so many Jewish colleagues, Ann? It's because we have a cultural affinity for being big-nosed bookworms? That's even more racist than just saying we have higher IQ on average.