It's Official: Middle Children are the Best!

          Pinch me. I must be dreaming. The findings from a new birth order study have generated some surprisingly good news for Middle Children! As reported in The Guardian, “In one of the largest studies ever conducted on birth order, family size and personality, Canadian researchers gathered data from more than 700,000 volunteers and found that on average, middle children scored higher than their siblings on traits seen as important for cooperation.” Using the HEXACO Personality Inventory, the study specifically found that Middle Children were found to be more honest, more humble, and more agreeable than our older and younger siblings.

          I KNEW IT!

          Finally some proof of how amazing we are. Kinda makes our siblings sound like a bunch of creeps, no? Okay, maybe I’m getting a little carried away. I mean, this study is an outlier. I hate to burst my own bubble, but most studies over the years have concluded that birth order has a negligible, if any, influence on personality. I should probably calm down and put it all in perspective…

 

          But wait, there’s even more good news. Another recent study  has found that first born and only children are more likely to experience anxiety and depression! Okay, maybe that’s not such good news, especially for first born and only children. But it’s certainly not bad news for Middle Children, right?

          Well, now it sounds like I’m just being heartless and spiteful. That was not my intention. I’m probably just reading way too much into all this research. I now realize none of this actually makes Middle Children the best.

          Of course, it certainly doesn’t make us the worst, either.

          I guess it makes us more like somewhere… in the middle.

 

See how you measure up! Take the HEXACO Personality Test 

 

Watch a report on these findings from the Australian TV Show “The Project ”

 

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