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Born to Rebel? Or Born to Steal Second Base?
My younger son stole a base in his second-ever little league game a few weeks ago. I was stunned – he’s seven. But according to birth order researchers Frank J. Sulloway and Richard L. Zweigenhaft, I shouldn’t have been surprised.
Sulloway is a long-time researcher in the area of how birth order influences personality, and believes that younger siblings tend to be more rebellious than their older – and more conformist — brothers and sisters, a theory he explicated on extensively in the book Born to Rebel: Birth Order, Family Dynamics and Creative Lives.
Sulloway’s take on the influence of birth order and its long-term life impacts is controversial and not without its detractors. So in his latest work, he decided to turn to pure statistics and examine sibling pairs in the baseball’s major leagues, specifically whether younger siblings would attempt to steal bases at higher rates than their older brothers.
And Sulloway and research partner Zweigenhaft scored a home run. As the New York Times reports:
For more than 90 percent of the sibling pairs who had played in the major leagues throughout baseball’s long recorded history, including Joe and Dom DiMaggio and Cal and Billy Ripken, the younger brother (regardless of overall talent) tried to steal more often than his older brother.
Researchers say they believe that younger siblings rebelliousness originates in the struggle for parental attention. Oldest children (and onlies, by the way) learn to get ahead by pleasing mom and dad. Younger children need to differentiate themselves to get their share of the parental pie, and rebellion is as good a strategy for getting yourself noticed as any other. So why would it persist in adulthood where, presumably, we compete on a more level playing field? Well, it’s the way we learned to interact with our superiors and peers and it becomes an ingrained behavior pattern.
So what do you think? Do you believe there is anything to birth order psychology? Or do you think it is just a bunch of mumbo jumbo that doesn’t explain much at all? Discuss.
Photo: Wildernice
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