I'm not sure if this can be accessed without subscription, but in any case, here's also a comment on the paper:Science Magazine wrote: Explaining the Relation Between Birth Order and Intelligence
Petter Kristensen and Tor Bjerkedal
Negative associations between birth order and intelligence level have been found in numerous studies. The explanation for this relation is not clear, and several hypotheses have been suggested. One family of hypotheses suggests that the relation is due to more-favorable family interaction and stimulation of low-birth-order children, whereas others claim that the effect is caused by prenatal gestational factors. We show that intelligence quotient (IQ) score levels among nearly 250,000 military conscripts were dependent on social rank in the family and not on birth order as such, providing support for a family interaction explanation.
www.sciencemag.org.ubproxy.ub.uni-heide ... /5832/1711
Basically, the authors say that according to their study, older siblings have higher IQs than younger siblings - the first-born is more intelligent than the second-born, the second-born is more intelligent than the third-born, and so on. But also, this difference seems to depend not on absolute birth order, but rather on the way children are raised: if the first-born dies young, and the second-born is raised as the older brother, he will be as intelligent as the first-born would have been.
It's a fascinating paper... and vindication for all older siblings
