Comments on: Why your older sibling is smarter than you

By: sarah

sarah — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 01:41:00 +0000

umfortunatly I am the oldest and, while still quite intelligent, my intelligence is far inferior to my little brothers.

By: Mr. Durrrr

Mr. Durrrr — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:29:00 +0000

maybe we missed one thought here folks – perhaps when you have an older brother or sister you are repressed or teased or told no you can’t more often…. selfesteem issues??

By: Irene

Irene — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 04:55:00 +0000

I disagree with this theory. I have two older siblings and I’m the youngest. My Older brother who is the frist one, is def. smarter than me but my older sister is just so dumb. When I argue with her she just makes no sense and she dosen’t understand what i’m talkin about and says random words which does not fit in the conversation.

By: snuffedsenses

snuffedsenses — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 21:07:26 +0000

I completly agree with parker in regard to this “seven year rule” thing that was mentioned. Although I do believe genetics does play some role I’m not quite certain of, I genuinely believe intelligence is mostly nurtured. I do suppose there are some people out there with lower intelligence due to inferior genes. And also, as some people have already brought to our attention: making better grades than someone else in school is not proof you are more intelligent or more capable than they are. This could simply mean you take more pride in your academics or you have a better work ethic. There is more than one kind of intelligence; some people are quite intelligent in one area and seriously lacking in another.

By: Parker

Parker — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 15:21:05 +0000

I’m pretty sure the “seven years” rule is either ridiculous or misstated. I could see how a mother’s body might need time to recover and be optimal for another gestation (in terms of nutrients, residual hormones, or strength of the womb, etc.), but the idea that one kid gets a “higher dose” of DNA is silly since we all get a random assortment of half of our father’s DNA and half of our mother’s (except in rare cases like Down Syndrome). As for the gametes themselves, females are born with all of the eggs they will ever have, so I can’t see how their genetic composition would be impacted by recent births. Sperm are also created by splitting dad’s full DNA, so there’s no way he could give more or less of his unique DNA to one child or another. I’d love to hear some scientific explanations for this supposed seven-year rule, but I’m not buying it now.

I agree with Duane, studies with only boys may be misleading. Given the heavier babysitting demands that girls probably get, mixed families probably have different results than all boy/all girl broods.

By: Mary

Mary — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 09:34:36 +0000

I’m not technically the oldest. I’m the second of a pair of twins, but my brother and I were born first.

I’d say my (twin who is slightly older) brother is the least smart of the three of us. He’s still pretty smart, but he make stupid life choices, and he only got a B average.

I’m good at school, but I have no street smarts.

But my little sister is probably going to be the Valedictorian of her class.

I think this is because my brother and I were homeschooled for three years and my sister for five (as she is two years younger) before entering high school. When the three of us were homeschooled at the same time, Mom would always help my sister because she’s youngest and needed it most.

If my brother and I were morphed into one person, I think this study would be true. But as twins, we are but halfpeople.

(Also, the doctors put her in a warming oven type of thing when she was born, and forgot about her. I believe the term “Oh $%@!# she’s still in there?!” was used. We in my family believe that this leads to her superhuman smarts)

By: trouble

trouble — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 18:56:55 +0000

although my older brother is smarter than me in a lot of ways, when it comes to some subjects or even common sense, i can evenly match him or out-smart him.

i disagree with this study 100%

By: Liz

Liz — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 09:26:20 +0000

I am 3 years younger than my brother and scored higher on every test we’ve had in common. He also dropped out of college after the first year, while I graduated a year early. My brother is still one of the most intelligent people I know.

Heather- As a native English speaker who speaks both Spanish and Japanese, I was wondering if you had considered that the two languages are very different. Spanish shares roots with English, uses the same alphabet, many of the same sounds and grammar structures, and has a similar thought process. Japanese has no common root, three very different writing forms, a reversed grammar structure and a very different way of thinking.

By: Sandra

Sandra — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 06:26:44 +0000

I have read repeatedly that the oldest or only children tend to be smarter, most things I have read on this point to more time paid to the oldest sibling.

It is an interesting theory on 7 years to replenish genes, and seems to fit in my family of 3 where as the oldest I am by far the smartest (with the IQ test to back it.) The next in my family is 7 years younger and well above average, despite a reading disability. The youngest is average intelligence, but her grades blow both of us away. My boyfriend is the youngest of 5 but significantly younger than his next oldest sibling, also the smartest in his family.

By: Aemi

Aemi — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 22:14:24 +0000

My older sister and I both seem to be highly intelligent. We lead very different lives, however, so it’d be hard to tell who’s smarter. I don’t think it matters much.