# In your family, is the oldest the smartest? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 22, 2007, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025 "2007-06-22T17:19:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025/1 "2007-06-22T17:19:56Z")
Just about every news outlet in Christendom is carrying the news this morning that oldest children are the smartest – or so a study suggests. So how does that play out in Doperdom? Among my own family (I’m number 2), I’d probably give the nod to number 3, the man of parts, one of which is a doctoral degree. Among my own children, I’m less sure. Maybe number 2? They’re good at different things, so it’s hard to tell. I do know that at one time, I had the eldest do an online version of the Wonderlic test, and she managed a better score than most professional football players. However, I think of number 2 as being more cerebral. And number three shows promise, though she’s too small to make a good comparison. How about the rest of you? ---
**Author:** ![Millit\_the\_Frail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/51bf81/32.png) [@Millit\_the\_Frail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Millit_the_Frail)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025/2 "2007-06-22T17:21:26Z")
Yes. –Millit, oldest of 3 ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025/3 "2007-06-22T17:22:28Z")
Heck no! Athena, youngest of 5 ---
**Author:** ![Bobotheoptimist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025/4 "2007-06-22T17:30:11Z")
Yeah. Both parents, too (I suspect - Dad’s little sister isn’t all that bright, Mom’s might be brighter than she lets on) ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025/5 "2007-06-22T17:30:15Z")
It’s just me and my younger sister. So Yes. ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025/6 "2007-06-22T17:40:07Z")
Well the results are slightly skewed. If you have several children in your family, and one is separated by more then 7 years, that child is technically raised as an only child in psychological development terms, thus giving them the 1st child syndrome if I may call it that… Phlosphr - youngest of 4. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025/7 "2007-06-22T17:40:51Z")
Well, I have more academic degrees, but my (younger) brother has a job that is probably much more complex than mine and with much more responsibility. The jury’s out on my two kids. They have different abilities but both scored high enough on recent tests to get into the gifted and talented programs at their schools. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025/8 "2007-06-22T17:41:11Z")
No way! twicks, youngest of 3 ---
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025/9 "2007-06-22T17:41:40Z")
No. My older sister (who is the oldest) has a lot of strengths and she’s better at a lot of things having to do with social savvy and intuition. But when it comes to raw book smarts, she was not the tops in our family. ---
**Author:** ![hawksgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ed655f/32.png) [@hawksgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawksgirl)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025/10 "2007-06-22T17:42:20Z")
Yes. - oldest of two I was a bookworm as a kid. My brother is convinced that reading isn’t cool and college is for losers. Too bad for him. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025/11 "2007-06-22T17:43:10Z")
I am the second of five, and by every objective measure would be considered the smartest of our brood, although my older brother is no slouch. Of my two children the oldest tested with a slightly higher IQ, although her younger brother seems smarter and may be so (in this case it’s like comparing a BMW with a Mercedes, neither is a bad option). ---
**Author:** ![AmericanMaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@AmericanMaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AmericanMaid)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025/12 "2007-06-22T17:43:49Z")
I’m the oldest, dad is the oldest and my mom is the oldest. So yes. My poor brother… ---
**Author:** ![Arien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arien)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025/13 "2007-06-22T17:44:27Z")
No, I think me and my younger sister are pretty close in terms of smarts. It’s hard to measure though since she’s still in high school. She gets better grades than I did but I have more sense. That’s probably because I’m older, though. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Blue-Sighted\_Shadow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecae2f/32.png) [@The\_Blue-Sighted\_Shadow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Blue-Sighted_Shadow)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025/14 "2007-06-22T17:45:28Z")
Yes. True in my parent’s families as well. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025/15 "2007-06-22T17:55:41Z")
I’m the oldest of three, and yes. The study concerned IQ anyway, and IQ tests back me up on this point even if the three of us argue about who’s best at everyting else. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025/16 "2007-06-22T17:56:00Z")
I don’t think so. I would hesitate to call myself smarter than my younger brother, although we’re good at different things, so it’s hard to tell. Our parents are both secondborns and, I suspect, probably smarter than their siblings, although again it’s hard to tell. It sounds like the differences are miniscule anyway; I mean, can you really tell the difference between someone with an IQ of 103 and someone with an IQ of 100? ---
**Author:** ![SiXSwordS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@SiXSwordS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiXSwordS)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025/17 "2007-06-22T17:57:12Z")
First, a quote from the [Yahoo](http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070621/ap_on_sc/birth_order) story. > [@](#): > > Boys at the top of the pecking order — either by birth or because their older siblings died — score higher on IQ tests than their younger brothers. The question of whether firstborn and only children are really smarter than those who come along later has been hotly debated for more than a century. As I read it, the study is about males, so the female part story isn’t in yet, not to mention the interaction between sexes in a family. It’s all about the eldest _boy_. Also, there is often an issue of _abdication_. Sometimes an oldest child, for whatever reason, does not play the role of (for want of a better term) senior child. Death is only the obvious case; a child may be disabled, emotionally withdrawn or physically or temporally separated from the rest of the sibship. And, while I have heard that firstborn men tend to be found in positions of “power” more often than would be expected statistically, this study pretty much says that firstborn males _test_ better… not that they are smarter. Some people suck at tests and some just don’t care about them enough to do well. So, to get to the OP, no. The middle child is the smartest. **SiXSwordS** = ickle baby, idn’t he cyooot. (A bit daft though!) ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025/18 "2007-06-22T17:59:40Z")
Tough one to answer: By higher education and general smartness, I would say my oldest sister is the smartest and she was easily the best student. By standardized testing, like SAT, CAT, IQ testing, it was I and I am the youngest of four. For my kids, it appears my daughter is smarter, she has a really inquisitive nature and is getting straight A’s, my son is bright but it is hard to tell how bright as he suffers from [ADHD](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADHD) and he is only 7. I would bet on my daughter, but I might be surprised in a few years. I think my family would have been surprised with me at age 7. I had speech problems and was behind in reading. I only excelled in math. It wasn’t until 5th grade that my abilities really started showing outside of math. I think it is tough to judge the intelligence of young kids. In my Mom’s & Dad’s families they are both the oldest and both appear to be the smartest. My wife is the oldest in her family and all three of them are exceptionally bright. I am not sure which is the brightest. The youngest brother has the least education and is finacially doing the best. Again, they are all very bright. Jim ---
**Author:** ![Litoris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9f8e36/32.png) [@Litoris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Litoris)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025/19 "2007-06-22T18:01:00Z")
I am the youngest of 4. We all have “above-average” IQ’s, but mine (supposedly) is the highest. My oldest brother is…uhmmm…not the brightest bulb on the tree, regardless of the fact that he supposedly has an Iq just below “gifted” while my next sibling (also a brother) is very intelligent (think genius-level). My sister? I have trouble believing that she even got a positive score on her IQ test, but is supposedly “above-average” while mine is “upper genius” level. I’ve always been one to skew the curve, though. ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025/20 "2007-06-22T18:01:33Z")
Yes. vetbridge, eldest of the three. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025.md?page=2)