Skip to main content

Birth Order, Sibling Competition, and Human Behavior

  • Chapter
Book cover Conceptual Challenges in Evolutionary Psychology

Part of the book series: Studies in Cognitive Systems ((COGS,volume 27))

Abstract

Sibling competition is widespread among bird and animal species and sometimes leads to siblicide. By influencing the strategies that siblings employ in their struggles for dominance, birth order affects the outcomes of such contests. In our own species, birth order is a proxy for disparities in age, physical size, and status, all of which contribute to personality. In addition, birth order is related to the roles and niches available to offspring within the family system. On average, firstborns—who tend to act as surrogate parents—are more conscientious than laterborns, whereas laterborns are more agreeable, extraverted, and nonconforming. As strategies for dealing with rivals in a dominance hierarchy, as well as for optimizing parental investment, these sibling differences are consistent with a Darwinian perspective on family life. So are other links between personality and family dynamics, particularly those associated with parental investment and parent-offspring conflict. In adulthood, human behavior continues to reflect these formative influences, although such behavioral dispositions generally need to be catalyzed by appropriate situations in order to be fully expressed.

Keywords

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Adler, Alfred. 1927. Understanding Human Nature. New York: Greenberg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adler, Alfred. 1928. “Characteristics of the First, Second, and Third Child”, Children, 3, 14–52.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beer, Jeremy M. & Horn, Joseph M. 2000. “The Influence of Reading Order on Personality Development within Two Adoption Cohorts”, Journal of Personality, 68, 789–819.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blanchard, Ray. 1997. “Birth Order and Sibling Sex Ratio in Homosexual versus Heterosexual Males and Females”, Annual Review of Sex Research, 8, 27–67.

    Google Scholar 

  • Block, Jack. 1995. “A Contrarian View of the Five-Factor Approach to Personality Description”, Psychological Bulletin, 117, 187–215.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bragg, Arthur N. 1954. “Further Study of Predation and Cannibalism in Spadefoot Tadpoles”, Herpetologica, 20, 17–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Costa, Paul T. Jr & McCrae, Robert R. 1992. NEOPI-R Professional Manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daly, Martin & Wilson, Margo. 1988. Homicide. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daly, Martin & Wilson, Margo. 1990. “Is Parent-offspring Conflict Sex-linked? Freudian and Darwinian Models”, Journal of Personality, 58, 163–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Darwin, Charles R. 1859. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. London: John Murray.

    Google Scholar 

  • Darwin, Charles R. 1887. The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, 3 vols. London: John Murray.

    Google Scholar 

  • Downey, Douglas B. 2001. “Number of Siblings and Intellectual Development”, American Psychologist, 56, 497–504.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Drummond, Hugh & García-Chavelas, C. 1989. “Food Shortage Influences Sibling Aggression in the Blue-Footed Booby”, Animal Behavior, 37, 806–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Drummond, Hugh & Osorno, Jose Luis. 1992. “Training Siblings to Be Submissive Losers: Dominance between Booby Nestlings”, Animal Behavior, 44, 881–93.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eaves, L.J., Eysenck, H.J., & Martin, N.G. 1989. Genes, Culture and Personality. London and San Diego: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eaves, L.J., Eysenck, H.J., & Martin, N.G. 1989. Genes, Culture and Personality. London and San Diego: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frank, Laurence G., Glickman, Stephen E., & Licht, Paul. 1991. “Fatal Sibling Aggression, Precocial Development, and Androgens in Neonatal Spotted Hyenas”, Science, 252, 702–704.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freese, Jeremy, Powell, Brian, & Steelman, Lala Carr. 1999. “Rebel Without a Cause or Effect: Birth Order and Social Attitudes”, American Sociological Review, 64, 207–231.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Galton, Francis. 1874. English Men of Science. London: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gould, Stephen Jay. 1977. Ontogeny and Phytogeny. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haig, David. 1993. “Genetic Conflicts in Human Pregnancy”, Quarterly Review of Biology, 68, 495–531.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton, William D. 1964. “The Genetical Evolution of Social Behavior”, I and II, Journal of Theoretical Biology, 7, 1–16; 17–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton, William D. 1967. “Extraordinary Sex Ratios”, Science, 156, 477–88.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harris, Judith Rich. 1995. “Where Is the Child’s Environment? A Group Socialization Theory of Development”, Psychological Review, 102, 458–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harris, Judith Rich. 1998. The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hertwig, Ralph, Davis, Jennifer, & Sulloway, Frank J. 2001. “Parental Investment: How an Equality Motive Can Produce Inequality”, manuscript submitted for publication.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hrdy, Sarah Blaffer & Judge, Debra. 1992. “Darwin and the Puzzle of Primogeniture”, Human Nature, 4, 1–45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hunter, John E. & Schmidt, Frank L. 1990. Methods of Meta-Analysis: Correcting Error and Bias in Research Findings. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jefferson, Tyrone Jr., Herbst, Jeffrey H., & McCrae, Robert R. 1998. “Associations between Birth Order and Personality Traits: Evidence from Self-reports and Observer Ratings”, Journal of Research on Personality, 32, 498–509.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • John, Oliver P. 1990. “The ‘Big Five’ Factor Taxonomy: Dimensions of Personality in the Natural Language and in Questionnaires”, in Pervin, L.A., ed., Handbook of Personality: Theory and Research. New York: Guilford, pp. 66–100.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, M.B. & Blanchard, Ray. 1998. “Birth Order and Male Homosexuality: Extension of Slater’s Index”, Human Biology, 70, 775–787.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koch, Helen. 1956. “Attitudes of Young Children Toward Their Peers as Related to Certain Characteristics of Their Siblings”, Psychological Monographs, 70, 1–41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krebs, John R. & Davies, Nicholas B. 1997. Behavioural Ecology: An Evolutionary Approach, 4th ed. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krishnamurthy, K.S., Shaanker, R. Uma, & Ganeshaiah, K.N. 1997. “Seed Abortion in an Animal Dispersed Species, Syzygium cuminii (L.) Skeels (Myrtaceae): The Chemical Basis”, Current Science, 73, 869–73.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, David L. 1970. King: A Critical Biography. New York: Praeger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loehlin, John C. 1992. Genes and Environment in Personality Development. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayr, Ernst. 1961. “Cause and Effect in Biology”, Science, 134, 1501–1506.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCrae, Robert R. 1994. “Openness to Experience: Expanding the Boundaries of Factor V”, European Journal of Personality, 8, 251–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCrae, Robert R. & Costa, Paul T., Jr. 1987. “Validation of the Five-Factor Model of Personality across Instruments and Observers”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 81–90.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCrae, Robert R. & John, Oliver P. 1992. “An Introduction to the Five-Factor Model and Its Applications”, Journal of Personality, 60: 175–215.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mock, Douglas W. & Parker, G.A. 1998. The Evolution of Sibling Rivalry. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mock, Douglas W., Drummond, Hugh, & Stinson, Christopher H. 1990. “Avian Siblicide”, American Scientist, 78, 438–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Modell, John. 1996. “Family Niche and Intellectual Bent”, review of Born to Rebel, by Frank J. Sulloway, Science, 275, 624.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nicholson, Nigel. 2001. “Personality and Birth Order—Is There a Relationship? An Evolutionary Analysis”, unpublished manuscript.

    Google Scholar 

  • Numbers, Ronald. L. 1998. Darwinism Comes to America. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nyman, Lawrence. 1995. “The Identification of Birth Order Personality Attributes”, Journal of Psychology, 129, 51–59.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ozer, Daniel J. 1985. “Correlation and the Coefficient of Determination”, Psychological Bulletin, 97, 307–315.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parker, Wayne D. 1998. “Birth Order Effects in the Academically Talented”, Gifted Child Quarterly, 42, 29–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paulhus, Delroy L., Chen, David, & Trapnell, Paul D. 1999. “Birth Order and Personality within Families”, Psychological Science, 10, 482–88.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Phillips, Suzanne M. 1998. “Birth Order and Personality—Not Again!”, paper presented at the 69th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, February 1998, Boston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Plomin, Robert & Daniels, Denise. 1987. “Why Are Children in the Same Family So Different from One Another”, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 10, 1–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Retherford, Robert A. & Sewell, William H. 1991. “Birth Order and Intelligence: Further Tests of the Confluence Model”, American Sociological Review, 56, 141–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rogers, Joseph Lee. 2001. “What Causes Birth Order-Intelligence Patterns? The Admixture Hypothesis, Revisited”, American Psychologist, 56, 505–510.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rodgers, Joseph Lee, Cleveland, Hobart H., van den Oord, Edwin, & Rowe, David C. 2000. “Resolving the Debate Over Birth Order, Family Size, and Intelligence”, American Psychologist, 55, 599–612.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenthal, Robert. 1987. Judgment Studies: Design, Analysis, and Meta-analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenthal, Robert & Rubin, Donald B. 1982. “A Simple, General Purpose Display of Magnitude in Experimenter Effect”, Journal of Educational Psychology, 74, 166–69.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Salmon, Catherine A. 1998. “The Evocative Nature of Kin Terminology in Political Rhetoric”, Politics and the Life Sciences, 17, 51–57.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salmon, Catherine A. 1999. “On the Impact of Sex and Birth Order on Contact with Kin”, Human Nature, 10, 183–97.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Salmon, Catherine A. & Daly, Martin. 1998. “Birth Order and Familial Sentiment: Middleborns are Different”, Human Behavior and Evolution, 19, 299–312.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saudino, Kimberly J. 1997. “Moving beyond the Heritability Question: New Directions in Behavioral Genetic Studies of Personality”, Current Directions in Psychological Science, 6, 86–90.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schachter, Frances Fuchs, Gilutz, Gabi, Shore, Ellen, & Adler, Michelle. 1978. “Sibling Deidentification Judged by Mothers: Cross-validation and Developmental Studies”, Child Development, 49, 543–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schachter, Frances Fuchs. 1982. “Sibling Deidentification and Split-parent Identifications: A Family Tetrad”, in Lamb, M.E. & Sutton-Smith, B., eds., Sibling Relationships: Their Nature and Significance Across the Lifespan. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 123–52.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schafer, Joseph L. 1991. “Algorithms for Multiple Imputation and Posterior Simulation from Incomplete Multivariate Data with Ignorable Nonresponse”, Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Statistics, Harvard University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwabl, Hubert. 1996. “Environment Modifies the Testosterone Levels of a Female Bird and Its Eggs”, Journal of Experimental Zoology, 276, 157–63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwabl, Hubert, Mock, Douglas W., & Gieg, Jennifer A. 1997. “A Hormonal Mechanism for Parental Favouritism”, Nature, 386, 231.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skinner, William G. 1992. “Seek a Loyal Subject in a Filial Son: Family Roots of Political Orientation in Chinese Society”, in Family Process and Political Process in Modern Chinese History. Taipei, Republic of China: Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, pp. 943–93.

    Google Scholar 

  • Somit, Albert, Arwine, Alan, & Peterson, Steven A. 1996. Birth Order and Political Behavior. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sulloway, Frank J. 1979. Freud, Biologist of the Mind: Beyond the Psychoanalytic Legend. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sulloway, Frank J. 1982. “Freud and Biology: The Hidden Legacy”, in Wood-ward, W.R. & Ash, M.G., eds., The Problematic Science: Psychology in Nineteenth-Century Thought. New York: Praeger Publishers, pp. 198–227.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sulloway, Frank J. 1995. “Birth Order and Evolutionary Psychology: A Meta-analytic Overview”, Psychological Inquiry, 6, 75–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sulloway, Frank J. 1996. Born to Rebel: Birth Order, Family Dynamics, and Creative Lives. New York: Pantheon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sulloway, Frank J. 1997. Born to Rebel: Birth Order, Family Dynamics, and Creative Lives, revised ed. New York: Vintage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sulloway, Frank J. 1999. “Birth Order”, in Runco, M. A. & Pritzker, S.R., eds., Encyclopedia of Creativity, 1: 189–202.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sulloway, Frank J. (in press-a). “Born to Rebel and Its Critics”, Politics and the Life Sciences.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sulloway, Frank J. (in press-b). “Sibling-Order Effects”, International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences.

    Google Scholar 

  • Townsend, F. (in press). “Birth Order and Rebelliousness: Reconstructing the Research in Born to Rebel, Politics and the Life Sciences.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trivers, Robert L. 1974. “Parent-offspring Conflict”, American Zoologist, 14, 249–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trivers, Robert L. 1985. Social Evolution. Menlo Park, CA: Benjamin/Cummings.

    Google Scholar 

  • Voland, Ekart. 1988. “Differential Infant and Child Mortality in Evolutionary Perspective: Data from the late 17th to 19th Century Ostfriesland (Germany)”, in Betzig, Laura, Mulder, Monique Borgerhoff, & Türke, Paul, eds., Human Reproduction Behaviour: A Darwinian Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 253–62.

    Google Scholar 

  • Voland, Ekart. 1990. “Differential Reproductive Success within the Krummhorn Population (Germany, 18th and 19th Centuries)”, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 26, 54–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilkinson, Leland & Hill, MaryAnn. 1994. SYSTAT forDOS, 2 vols. Evanston, Illinois: SYSTAT, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, Terrance J., Pepitone, Michelle E., Christensen, Scott E., Cooke, Bradley M., Huberman, Andrew D., Breedlove, Nicholas J., Breedlove, Tessa J., Jordan, Cynthia L., & Breedlove, S. Marc. 2000. “Finger Length Ratios and Sexual Orientation”, Nature, 404, 455–456.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zajonc, Robert B. 1976. “Family Configuration and Intelligence”, Science, 192, 227–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zajonc, Robert B. 2001. “The Family Dynamics of Intellectual Development”, American Psychologist, 56, 490–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zajonc, Robert B. & Mullally, Patricia R. 1997. “Birth Order: Reconciling Conflicting Effects”, American Psychologist, 52, 685–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zweigenhaft, Richard L. & Von Ammon, Jessica. 2000. “Birth Order and Civil Disobedience: A Test of Sulloway’s ‘Born to Rebel’ Hypothesis”, Journal of Social Psychology, 140, 624–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2001 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Sulloway, F.J. (2001). Birth Order, Sibling Competition, and Human Behavior. In: Holcomb, H.R. (eds) Conceptual Challenges in Evolutionary Psychology. Studies in Cognitive Systems, vol 27. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0618-7_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0618-7_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-3890-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-010-0618-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics