Middle children grow up to be better people – beating sibling rivals in two crucial categories, study suggests

Middle children rule.

That’s according to a new study that suggests more afflicted siblings grow up to be “better” than their rivals – adding to the long-running debate over whether or not birth order can predict personality.

Pioneering Austrian psychologist Albert Adler first posited this concept at least a century ago—and professionals have been fighting over his ideas ever since.

While the science may have yet to settle, stereotypes have long filled the gap — from the image of the tenacious, intelligent firstborn to the time-worn “spoiled” label placed on the youngest in a family.

No one takes it on the chin, perhaps, more than middle children, who also have the so-called “middle child syndrome” named after them.

This is described by WebMD as “the idea that if you’re neither the oldest nor the youngest child, you get less attention from your parents and feel ‘caught in the middle.’

That’s a good thing, according to the study’s Canadian authors, Michael Ashton of Brock University and Kibeom Lee of the University of Calgary.

Middle children, they say, end up “more honest, humble and nicer than their siblings,” says an analysis of academic work published by Parents, wondering if that actually makes them ” better”.

The head-shrinking survey used a test known as the HEXACO Personality Inventory, which looks at six traits in people – honesty-humility, emotionality, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness to experience.

When it came to honesty-humility and agreeableness, middle children scored the highest.

This means they can “forgive the wrongs they have suffered, are gentle in judging others, are willing to compromise and cooperate with others, and can easily control their temper,” according to the test.

A high score in the honesty-humility category, the test authors said, means that a person “will avoid manipulating others for personal gain” and “be disinterested in abundant wealth and luxury and feel no special right to high social status”.

Middle children may have come out on top in both categories, but they were followed by the youngest in a family. The oldest scored the lowest on these two fronts. Only children also fared poorly.

According to Parents, other recent studies looking to find out whether birth order is related to personality type conflict with the latest findings — the paper cited a 2020 study that says one doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the other. .

Only children, the authors of that paper said, were not guaranteed to be more narcissistic than their counterparts with many siblings, for example.

Famous middle children include Martin Luther King, Jr., Madonna, Warren Buffett, and Abraham Lincoln.