Adventures in Ethics and Science

Coming up on a long holiday weekend, you all are ready for another internet quiz, right?

I can’t help wondering whether the “Birth Order Predictor” quiz is not well-grounded in the sociological facts, or whether there really isn’t any such coherent set of sociological facts, or whether I’m just a weirdo.

Because it’s hard to imagine this result being any more off base:

You Are Likely an Only Child

At your darkest moments, you feel frustrated.
At work and school, you do best when you’re organizing.
When you love someone, you tend to worry about them.

In friendship, you are emotional and sympathetic.
Your ideal careers are: radio announcer, finance, teaching, ministry, and management.
You will leave your mark on the world with organizational leadership, maybe as the author of self-help books.

The Birth Order Predictor

Comments

#1 The Ridger
June 29, 2006

It’s not just you – depending on how you reckon these things, I’m either a first or second born (my brother is 6 years older, and some people say that effectively he and I aren’t in the same group) – and this said I was “likely a fourth born”.
#2 oliviacw
June 29, 2006

Yes, well, it tells me that I am “fourth born”. Being the fourth child from my family of three children is a pretty cool trick! Especially since I’m the oldest.
#3 Matt McIrvin
June 29, 2006

It told me I was likely a “Fourth Born”. I’m a first, but then again it may mean I am postfix and stack-based.
#4 amamabear
June 30, 2006

This is really and truely off….I have 1 brother and 1 sister of which I am the middle child, I also have 3 half brothers and a half sister from my mom and 3 half sisters and a half brother from my father (all older)…to complicate it further I have 2 foster brothers and 6 foster sisters (also all older except 2) with finally the addition of 1 adoptive sister and 3 adoptive brothers (where I am the oldest)….but maybe it knows somedays I really wish I were and ONLY child.
#5 Bob O'H
June 30, 2006

It got me right as being second-born (of two), but this confused me:

Your ideal careers are: accounting, banking, art, carpentry, decorating, teaching, and writing novels.
You will leave your mark on the world with art and creative projects.

Accounting!?

Bob
#6 VisualFX
June 30, 2006

Likewise. I got me so wrong, it wasn’t even funny. The last question did not include a choice that even closely resembles how I relate to people. The path question was odd too, none of those choices really reflected me either. Oh well, hence the value of internet quizzes.

Have a good holiday weekend.
#7 Ed Fitzgerald (unfutz)
June 30, 2006

I also was listed as fourth born, despite being the first born. (Actually, it said I was “forth [sic] born”.)

I’d suggest that five questions is much too small a number to establish birth order, and that many of the questions potentially have multiple correct answers, since the choices are not mutually exclusive. (For instance, the walking in the woods question.)
#8 Scott Simmons
June 30, 2006

Yep-mine said forth [sic] born as well. I could have sworn I was the elder of two children … I’ll have to interrogate my folks to find out what happened to my older siblings. Very suspicious …
#9 idlemind
June 30, 2006

My older brother and sister will be pleased to know that I am an only child, and thus their baby brother was a figment of their imagination.
#10 Unlearned Hand
July 1, 2006

I’m an “only child” too. This is especially disturbing not because I’m the youngest of the four but because it puts creedence to what Mom always said about how I would prefer to be an only child.
#11 J. Todd Ormsbee
July 8, 2006

Well, it got my birth-order half right. I was an only child until about age 11 when my parents adopted my little brother (and then at 24 my parents had naturally my little sister). But it’s description was way off. I’m with Bob: Finance!?

Hey Free-Ride, I’m at SJSU, too, and am just in the beginning phases of starting a project about naturalism and social theory. We should talk.