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25 - Birth Order and Evolutionary Psychology

from Part VI - Evolution and Development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 March 2020

By
Frank J. Sulloway
Edited by
Lance Workman ,
Will Reader  and
Jerome H. Barkow
Lance Workman
Affiliation:
University of South Wales
Will Reader
Affiliation:
Sheffield Hallam University
Jerome H. Barkow
Affiliation:
Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia
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Summary

Birth order has long been thought to have a lasting influence on people’s lives through its effects on social customs and by fostering individual differences in personality and social behavior. Historically, birth order has been linked with well-documented differences in professional opportunities and achievement, emigration patterns, likelihood of reproduction, mortality rates, inheritance practices, and the politics of royal succession (Altus, 1966; Boone, 1986; Bu, 2016; Duby, 1977; Galton, 1874; Herlihy, 1977; Hrdy & Judge, 1993; Sulloway, 1996). An analysis of birth order and the social customs in 39 non-Western societies found that firstborns generally receive more extensive birth ceremonies than do their younger siblings, are allotted special privileges, and, even in adulthood, exert authority over their brothers and sisters (Rosenblaat & Skoogberg, 1974). Additionally, firstborns in these 39 societies received a greater share of parental property than did laterborns.

Type
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Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behavior , pp. 299 - 310
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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