Is birth order the key to understanding personality, or is it just a convenient myth? In this episode of The Journalism of Everything Podcast, we look at the psychology of birth order through the lens history’s most famous set of siblings—Wilbur, Orville and Katharine Wright.
Though Wilbur and Orville Wright were considered middle children, it is hard to know if their personalities had anything to do with their birth order. Wilbur was reserved, and more meticulous while Orville was more outgoing and impulsive, though also most comfortable working in one of their projects. Katharine was the strong-willed, opinionated and extroverted youngest sibling, and only daughter. In some ways, they each fit into the various birth order stereotypes, but the loss of their mother and having moved at least 12 times during their childhoods undoubtedly played a role in their personalities as adults.
In this episode, we examine the theories of Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler, one of the first to suggest that birth order influences personality. We break down his ideas on family roles, inferiority complexes, and the fight for parental attention—contrasting them with modern psychological research that largely debunks the notion that birth order determines who we become. There have been multiple studies in the past several decades that have examined the relationship of birth order on personality and intelligence, with mixed results.
So, does birth order really matter? Or are we just looking for patterns where none exist? This episode combines history, psychology, and myth-busting to help you rethink everything you thought you knew about siblings, personality, and the forces that shape us.
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