TY - JOUR

T1 - Birth-order effects on risk taking are limited to the family environment

AU - Lejarraga, Tomás

AU - Schnitzlein, Daniel D.

AU - Dahmann, Sarah C.

AU - Hertwig, Ralph

N1 - Funding Information: We thank Susannah Goss for editing the manuscript. Dahmann gratefully acknowledges funding from the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council's Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course (Project ID CE200100025). Schnitzlein gratefully acknowledges funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG), grant number SCHN 1501/3-1.

PY - 2024/1/18

Y1 - 2024/1/18

N2 - Why is the empirical evidence for birth-order effects on human psychology so inconsistent? In contrast to the influential view that competitive dynamics among siblings permanently shape a person's personality, we find evidence that these effects are limited to the family environment. We tested this context-specific learning hypothesis in the domain of risk taking, using two large survey datasets from Germany (SOEP, n = 19,994) and the United States (NLSCYA, n = 29,627) to examine birth-order effects on risk-taking propensity across a wide age range. Specification-curve analyses of a sample of 49,621 observations showed that birth-order effects are prevalent in children aged 10–13 years, but that they decline with age and disappear by middle adulthood. The methodological approach shows the effect is robust. We thus replicate and extend previous work in which we showed no birth-order effects on adult risk taking. We conclude that family dynamics cause birth-order effects on risk taking but that these effects fade as siblings transition out of the home.

AB - Why is the empirical evidence for birth-order effects on human psychology so inconsistent? In contrast to the influential view that competitive dynamics among siblings permanently shape a person's personality, we find evidence that these effects are limited to the family environment. We tested this context-specific learning hypothesis in the domain of risk taking, using two large survey datasets from Germany (SOEP, n = 19,994) and the United States (NLSCYA, n = 29,627) to examine birth-order effects on risk-taking propensity across a wide age range. Specification-curve analyses of a sample of 49,621 observations showed that birth-order effects are prevalent in children aged 10–13 years, but that they decline with age and disappear by middle adulthood. The methodological approach shows the effect is robust. We thus replicate and extend previous work in which we showed no birth-order effects on adult risk taking. We conclude that family dynamics cause birth-order effects on risk taking but that these effects fade as siblings transition out of the home.

KW - birth order

KW - family dynamics

KW - multiverse analysis

KW - risk attitude

KW - risk taking

KW - specification-curve analysis

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85182951453&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/nyas.15085

DO - 10.1111/nyas.15085

M3 - Article

C2 - 37983197

AN - SCOPUS:85182951453

VL - 1531

SP - 60

EP - 68

JO - Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

JF - Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

SN - 0077-8923

IS - 1

ER -