A New Study Has Answered An Age-Old Question: Who Is The Smarter Sibling?

Brothers and sisters, are you ready to hear this? You've been battling over this all your lives, and finally, the results are in. A new study by the University of Leipzig in Germany has settled the matter: the eldest child is also the smartest child. The researchers gathered data from IQ and personality tests from three national studies involving more than 20,000 subjects, so it's a pretty fair sample size. Sorry, younger siblings; you were doomed from the start.

The study gives a few reasons for the oldest child being the smartest, and they do make sense. For one, the older children obviously get more undivided attention. 

The study didn't cover whether the lack of undivided attention for a younger child made him or her more likely to be a problem child.

The study also noted that older children are usually expected to teach their younger siblings some of the knowledge and skills they've picked up.

So maybe it's no wonder that Daniel, Billy, and Stephen followed in Alec's footsteps.

Now, the study put the difference in IQ between the older and younger siblings at 1.5 points — not exactly an Earth-shattering number. And it goes down by that much per sibling.

If the study is indeed correct, although Julia has the hardware, Eric — her senior by 10 years — likely did better on his SATs. But probably only barely. 

The researchers behind the study estimated that, in a two-child family, the older child had a six-in-10 chance of having a higher IQ. 

Which does leave a four-in-10 probability that the older child won't be smarter, or that they'll be just as smart. The older child might, however, perceive themselves as more intelligent. 

[h/t: Metro]

Main and collage images via Marvel

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