What psychological phenomenon do you believe in but cannot prove? I'd have to go with birth order. Having grown up with three siblings, I can't help but be convinced that my birth order (I'm the second oldest) has had a profoundly important influence on my personality.
That said, birth order is mostly bunk. Numerous scientific studies and meta-analyses have found that the phenomenon doesn't seem to exist. There are few, if any, personality traits that consistently correlate with a child's order within the family.
But I'm not giving up on my empirical hunch. Like all good rationalizers, I can find bits and pieces of evidence to support my untenable belief:
If you grew up with an older brother or sister and thought it was a mixed blessing, there's some new research that lends credence to that sentiment. A team of economists looked at data on the extracurricular activities of 10th-graders across the United States and found an interesting pattern. Girls with an older sibling were less likely to participate in non-athletic extracurricular activities, like yearbook, newspaper, youth groups, community service, music, and art. On the other hand, boys with an older sibling were more likely to participate in athletic extracurricular activities, like baseball, football, and swimming, though they were less likely to participate in youth groups, music, or art. The gender of the older sibling did not matter. The authors believe this pattern could be due to differences in attention or support from parents, or because of the way older siblings act as role models or mentors.
Brain & Behavior
Comments (9)
The male fraternal birth order effect (higher incidence of male homosexuality with more older male brothers) has been authenticated. There was a paper in PNAS a few years ago.
Posted by: mikem | June 2, 2008 11:48 AM