出生順序決定你的個性命運？

記得念初一時，一位同時教我和弟弟英語的老師曾很困惑地問我：“你和你弟怎么那么不同？簡直一個天，一個地。你讀書那么認真，又不好動，你弟卻活蹦亂跳的，整天玩，一點都不喜歡讀書。”回到家把話轉給媽媽聽，弟弟倒在一旁機靈地插話：“那不就好咯，我們家文武雙全嘛。”哈哈，聽來好像也很有道理。^_^

從沒想過出生順序還能與個性、命運搭上關系，直到讀到這篇文章，嘿嘿，有意思。文章還講到一個現象，國外的父母往往對第一個孩子投資最大，花的心血最多。而在國內，似乎家里最疼愛的多半還是最小的那個哦……

——Lavender

It could not have been easy being Elliott Roosevelt. If the alcohol wasn’t getting him， the 1)morphine was. If it wasn’t the morphine， it was the struggle with depression. Then， of course， there were the constant comparisons with big brother Teddy who later became President at age 42.

Elliott Roosevelt was not the only younger sibling of an 2)eventual President to cause his family heartaches—or at least headaches. There was Roger Clinton and his year in jail on a

cocaine conviction. And there is Neil Bush， younger sib of both a President and a Governor， implicated in the savings-and-loan scandals of the 1980s.

It can’t be easy being a 3)runt in a litter that includes a President. But it couldn’t have been easy being Billy Ripken either， an unexceptional major league 4)infielder craning his neck for notice while the press swarmed around Hall of Famer and elder brother Cal. And you may have never heard of Tisa Farrow， an actress of no particular note beyond her work in the 1979 horror film 5)Zombie， but odds are you’ve heard of her sister 6)Mia.

Of all the things that shape who we are， few seem more arbitrary than the sequence in which we and our siblings 7)pop out of the womb. Maybe it’s your genes that make you a gifted athlete， your training that makes you an accomplished actress， an accident of brain chemistry that makes you a drunk instead of a President. But in family after family， case study after case study， the simple roll of the birth-date 8)dice has an odd and arbitrary power all its own.

In June 2008， a group of Norwegian researchers released a study showing that firstborns are generally smarter than any siblings who come along later， enjoying on average a three-point IQ advantage over the next eldest—probably a result of the intellectual boost that comes from mentoring younger siblings and helping them in day-to-day tasks. The second child， in turn， is a point ahead of the third. While three points might not seem like much， the effect can be enormous. “In many

families，” says psychologist Frank Sulloway， the man who has for decades been seen as the U.S.’s leading authority on birth order， “the firstborn is going to get into Harvard and the second-born isn’t.”

The differences don’t stop there. Studies in the Philippines show that later-born siblings tend to be shorter and weigh less than earlier-borns. Younger siblings are less likely to be 9)vaccinated than older ones， with last-borns getting immunized sometimes at only half the rate of

firstborns. Eldest siblings are also disproportionately represented in high-paying professions. Younger siblings， by contrast， are 10)looser cannons and less educated， but statistically likelier to live the exhilarating life of an artist or a comedian， an adventurer， entrepreneur or firefighter. And middle children? Well， they can be a puzzle—even to researchers.

For families， none of this comes as a surprise. There are few extended clans that can’t point to the firstborn， who makes the best grades， keeps the other kids in line and， when Mom and Dad grow old， winds up as caretaker and executor too. There are few that can’t point to the lost-in-the-thickets middle-born or the wild-child last-born.

While the eldest in an overpopulated brood has it relatively easy—getting 100% of the food the parents have available—things get stretched thinner when a second-born comes along. Later-borns put even more pressure on resources. Over time， everyone might be getting the same rations， but the firstborn still enjoys a caloric 11)head start that might never be overcome.

Food is not the only resource. There’s time and attention too and the emotional nourishment they

provide. It’s not for nothing that family scrapbooks are usually stuffed with pictures and report cards of the firstborn and successively fewer of the later-borns. Educational opportunities can be unevenly shared too， particularly in families that can afford the tuition bills of only one child. Families invest a lot in the firstborn. And they thrive. In a recent survey of corporate heads conducted by 12)Vistage， an international organization of CEOs， poll takers reported that 43% of the people who occupy the big chair in boardrooms are firstborns， 33% are middle-borns and 23% are last-borns. Eldest siblings are disproportionately represented among surgeons and MBAs too， according to Stanford University psychologist Robert Zajonc.

For eldest siblings， this is a pretty sweet deal. There is not much incentive for them to change a family system that provides them so many goodies， and typically they don’t try to. Younger siblings see things differently and struggle early on to shake up the existing order. They clearly don’t have size on their side， as their physically larger siblings keep them in line with what researchers call a high-power strategy.

But there are low-power strategies too， and one of the most effective ones is humor. It’s awfully hard to resist the charms of someone who can make you laugh， and families abound with stories of last-borns who are the 13)clowns of the brood， able to get their way simply by being funny or outrageous. Birth-order scholars often observe that some of history’s great satirists—Voltaire， 14)Jonathan Swift， Mark Twain—were among the youngest members of large families， a pattern that continues today. American comedian 15)Stephen Colbert—who yields to no one in his ability to get a laugh—often points out that he’s the last of 11 children. Such examples might be little more than anecdotal， but personality tests show that while firstborns score especially well on the dimension of temperament known as conscientiousness—a sense of general responsibility and follow-through—later-borns score higher on what’s known as agreeableness， or the simple ability to get along in the world.

Later-borns are similarly willing to take risks with their physical safety. All sibs are equally likely to be involved in sports， but younger ones are likelier to choose the kinds that could cause injury. “They don’t go out for tennis，” Sulloway says. “They go out for rugby， ice hockey. Even when siblings play the same sport， they play it differently.” Research by Ben Dattner， a professor of industrial and organizational psychology at New York University， is showing that even when later-borns take conservative jobs， they approach their work in a high-wire way. Firstborn CEOs， for

example， do best when they’re making 16)incremental improvements in their companies: shedding

underperforming products， maximizing profits from existing lines and generally making sure the trains run on time. Later-born CEOs are more inclined to blow up the trains and lay new track. “Later-borns are better at transformational change，” says Dattner. “They pursue riskier， more innovative， more creative approaches.”

If eldest sibs are the dogged achievers and youngest sibs are the gamblers and visionaries， where does this leave those in between? That it’s so hard to define what middle-borns become is largely due to the fact that it’s so hard to define who they are growing up. The youngest in the family， but only until someone else comes along， they are both teacher and student， babysitter and babysat， too young for the privileges of the firstborn but too old for the latitude given the last. Middle children are expected to 17)step up to the plate when the eldest child goes off to school or in some other way drops out of the picture. Middlings are never alone and thus never get 100% of the parents’ investment of time and money.

當艾略特·羅斯福一點兒也不容易。不是酗酒，就是嗎啡成癮；走得出嗎啡魔爪，又逃不開抑郁癥的折磨；當然，更不要說，幾乎所有人都拿他和他哥哥泰迪（昵稱，實為西奧多·羅斯福）作比較，后者在42歲時成為美國總統。

在美國總統的家史中，艾略特·羅斯福并不是唯一一個讓總統家族心痛、或者至少是頭痛的“總統弟弟”。還有克林頓總統的弟弟羅杰·克林頓，因涉及可卡因交易被判入獄，以及有位總統哥哥及州長哥哥的尼爾·布什，在上世紀80年代牽連多起儲蓄貸款丑聞。

在走出一位總統的家庭里做一個小蘿卜頭肯定不容易，但要做比利·瑞普肯一定也不容易。他是美國一主要職業棒球隊中的一名普通內場手，他那已進入棒球名人堂的哥哥卡爾·瑞普肯總被媒體包圍得水泄不通，而他卻得努力伸長脖子招人注意。或許你從沒聽說過蒂莎·法羅，這位女演員除了在1979年出演過恐怖電影《僵尸》之外就沒什么特別值得一提的，但你很可能聽說過她的姐姐米婭·法羅。