出生顺序决定你的个性命运？

      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.
     在所有塑造我们成为现在这个样子的因素中，几乎没什么比我们和我们的兄弟姐妹从娘胎里钻出来的顺序更随意的了。或许是你的基因决定你成为一名出色的运动员，或许是艰苦的训练决定你成为一名有造诣的演员，或许脑内意外发生的化学反应让你成为一个酒鬼，而不是总统，但一个又一个家庭、一个又一个案例的研究结果显示，单单是出生的顺序就对个人的命运有着一种不寻常而独断的影响。

      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.”
       2008年6月，一群挪威研究人员公布的一项研究表明，家中第一个出生的孩子大体要比晚出生的孩子聪明，他们的智商平均比第二个孩子高出3点——这很可能是因为他们每天要管教以及帮助弟弟妹妹应付日常生活和学习，而第二个孩子的平均智商依次比第三个孩子高出1点。智商高出3点也许看上去并不多，但影响却很大。心理学家弗兰克·苏洛威（几十年来在美国研究出生顺序的顶尖权威人士）说：“对于很多家庭来说，这意味着第一个孩子能进哈佛大学，第二个则不能”。

      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.
　　差别还不止于此。菲律宾国内的研究显示，家庭里晚出生的孩子在身高和体重方面都劣于早出生的孩子。他们也往往没像早出生的孩子那样接受疫苗接种，有时候最后一个孩子获得的免疫力只有第一个孩子的一半。在高收入人群中，长子或长女的比率明显大。相比之下，弟弟妹妹们多半“不羁”，受教育程度较低。但从统计学的角度看，弟弟妹妹们更有可能成为艺术家或者喜剧演员、冒险家、企业家或者消防员，过着自己喜欢的生活。至于排行中间的孩子，就算对研究人员来说，也还是谜团一个。