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The first paragraph of the article is in conflict with the headline: "The positive effects were seen only in older siblings, not in younger ones." So the head
by aresant 15y ago
The first paragraph of the article is in conflict with the headline:
"The positive effects were seen only in older siblings, not in younger ones."
So the headline is false.
Your "kids" won't be smarter.
But maybe the older one will be.
Then the rest of the article just fills space.
It's linkbait, which is my expectation with anything from Freakonomics.
My problem is that their headlines are disseminated as gospel and repeated verbatim thousands or millions of times, until that headline becomes a truth.
And winds up in a parenting book.
And causes somebody to make a decision based on false data.
Maybe I have too active an imagination, but this just gets under my skin.
- billpatrianakos 15y agoYour imagination is just fine. My mind went there too! This is just an entertainment fluff piece. I think I'm spending too much time on HN as I'm starting to feel like a lot of crap is getting on the front page. Who can I blame but the people who submit and then up vote it. So if that's who is to blame then maybe HN is getting diluted. or maybe I'm becoming elitist? Or I'd better get off here for a but and find something to do :)
- eric-hu 15y agoSo to update the headline to your (very reasonable) criteria: "Study: Oldest children test scores higher when 2+ years older"