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> Regarding birth order, the "middle child" stereotype is prevalent in Western society What is this stereotype though? I don't know about it - or about the oth

> Regarding birth order, the "middle child" stereotype is prevalent in Western society What is this stereotype though? I don't know about it - or about the others actually, but they were explained in the article.

watwut 9y ago
I haven't heard about such prevalent stereotypes either. Stereotypes about women I did heard or stereotypes about races. I never heard anyone explain lack of success of child by saying "because he is second" or success of first as "first tend to be like it". Like, never.
olympus 9y ago
The middle child stereotype is that middle children receive less attention than both their older and younger siblings, resulting in them underperforming in several metrics. In three child families, the "best" child is first-born, the middle child gets ignored, and the third-born gets pampered. Obviously this doesn't hold true for every family, and I'll acknowledge that this stereotype is may be less prevalent in cultures that tend towards small families (one or two kids).
- seszett 9y ago
  I see. I'm a single child though so there's little reason that I would have heard about that, but it does make sense. Also, it's quite possible that in France we talk even less about that, as people "being born equal" is a really important concept here.
- SolaceQuantum 9y ago
  Funnily enough in our family the youngest child is the best performing (so far, he’s still a teenager) follow d by the middle sibling, and then the eldest sibling is dead last in terms of performance in life in general.
- jschwartzi 9y ago
  My experience as the youngest child is that neither of my parents wanted to repeat the "mistake" they made giving my brother resources and supporting him. So where my brother generally got things like cars and a college education, I got things like jobs and student loans.
Joeboy 9y ago
I'm dimly aware of the stereotypes, but I'm extremely surprised at how much of a political, hot-button issue it seems to be here.
- olympus 9y ago
  It's not actually a hot-button issue, at least not on the level of gender and race stereotyping. Claiming a difference based on birth order is more likely to elicit a "you're behind the times" type of response rather than a "you're a horrible person" type of response if you claimed a gender or race based difference. I don't think it should be ignored just because there are more hot-button issues that can be fixed- recruiting women and racial minorities into STEM is probably a better bang for your buck than trying to level out a 1 point difference in IQ based on birth order (how would that even happen?). Even though birth order has a low effect size, it would be nice to know why it happens and how much we could do to change it.

watwut 9y ago

I haven't heard about such prevalent stereotypes either. Stereotypes about women I did heard or stereotypes about races. I never heard anyone explain lack of success of child by saying "because he is second" or success of first as "first tend to be like it". Like, never.

olympus 9y ago

The middle child stereotype is that middle children receive less attention than both their older and younger siblings, resulting in them underperforming in several metrics. In three child families, the "best" child is first-born, the middle child gets ignored, and the third-born gets pampered. Obviously this doesn't hold true for every family, and I'll acknowledge that this stereotype is may be less prevalent in cultures that tend towards small families (one or two kids).

seszett 9y ago
I see. I'm a single child though so there's little reason that I would have heard about that, but it does make sense. Also, it's quite possible that in France we talk even less about that, as people "being born equal" is a really important concept here.
SolaceQuantum 9y ago
Funnily enough in our family the youngest child is the best performing (so far, he’s still a teenager) follow d by the middle sibling, and then the eldest sibling is dead last in terms of performance in life in general.
jschwartzi 9y ago
My experience as the youngest child is that neither of my parents wanted to repeat the "mistake" they made giving my brother resources and supporting him. So where my brother generally got things like cars and a college education, I got things like jobs and student loans.

Joeboy 9y ago

I'm dimly aware of the stereotypes, but I'm extremely surprised at how much of a political, hot-button issue it seems to be here.

olympus 9y ago
It's not actually a hot-button issue, at least not on the level of gender and race stereotyping. Claiming a difference based on birth order is more likely to elicit a "you're behind the times" type of response rather than a "you're a horrible person" type of response if you claimed a gender or race based difference. I don't think it should be ignored just because there are more hot-button issues that can be fixed- recruiting women and racial minorities into STEM is probably a better bang for your buck than trying to level out a 1 point difference in IQ based on birth order (how would that even happen?). Even though birth order has a low effect size, it would be nice to know why it happens and how much we could do to change it.