Recent research highlights the impact of birth order on personality traits, particularly focusing on middle children, or “sandwich children,” who exhibit greater honesty-humility and agreeableness compared to their siblings. Conducted by Canadian researchers, the study analyzed data from over 700,000 participants and found that larger sibling groups promote cooperation. This challenges previous beliefs about birth order’s influence, suggesting that personality traits can significantly differ based on one’s position among siblings and the overall family size.
The Impact of Birth Order on Personality Traits
When it comes to sibling dynamics, older siblings are often seen as the responsible ones, while younger siblings are viewed as the daring, risk-takers. A recent study has shifted focus to middle children, often referred to as “sandwich children,” revealing intriguing insights into their personalities.
According to a study conducted by Canadian researchers, middle children tend to exhibit particularly cooperative traits. This conclusion, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), adds a new dimension to the ongoing debate about the influence of birth order on behavior.
New Findings on Sibling Dynamics
The long-standing stereotype suggests that first-borns are more dependable, while last-borns are more innovative and adventurous. However, this study leans towards the idea that birth order does indeed impact personality. Researchers Michael Ashton from Brock University and Kibeom Lee from the University of Calgary explored this subject by analyzing responses from over 700,000 participants who completed a 100-question online survey based on the HEXACO personality framework.
The findings revealed that sandwich children scored highest in honesty-humility and agreeableness compared to their older and younger siblings. The HEXACO model, developed by Ashton and Lee, identifies six key personality factors, with honesty-humility being defined as individuals who do not manipulate others for personal gain and are not motivated by wealth or social status.
In a further analysis involving nearly 75,000 respondents, the researchers discovered that larger sibling groups correlated with higher scores in honesty-humility and agreeableness. This suggests that growing up with more siblings fosters a spirit of cooperation, even beyond the influence of birth order itself.
Interestingly, while first-borns had slightly lower scores in these personality traits compared to sandwich children and last-borns, the differences were less pronounced among those raised in religious households. Additionally, only children and first-borns displayed slightly higher openness to experiences, whereas sandwich children and first-borns exhibited greater extraversion on average.
Ashton and Lee postulate that a larger number of siblings necessitates more cooperation, which could cultivate general cooperative tendencies. They propose that both honesty-humility and agreeableness are enhanced in larger sibling groups, indicating a tendency to avoid exploiting others and a measured response to perceived exploitation.
This study challenges previous research that suggested no significant link between personality traits and birth order, demonstrating that personality expressions can vary significantly based on one’s position in the sibling hierarchy and the size of the sibling group.