全通翻譯/翻譯社

◎國際新聞中心

Are you older and wiser than your brother or sister - or younger and more rebellious? There has long been a fascination with how our position amongst siblings affects character traits, but new research has revealed that these stereotypes do not stand up to scrutiny. However, there may be other reasons to be envious of your sibling’s birth position.

你比弟弟或妹妹聰明，比哥哥或姊姊反叛？總是有迷思認為，我們在手足間的排行影響個性，但新研究顯示，這些刻板印象禁不起檢驗。不過，或許還有其他理由，讓你羨慕兄弟姊妹的排行。

In a new study from the University of Leipzig, researchers examined how neurotic, extraverted, conscientious, open and agreeable 20,000 people were from the UK, US and Germany - and concluded that personality is not affected by whether you were born first, last or in between.

萊比錫大學的新研究中，研究人員檢視2萬名來自英國、美國與德國的人，有多神經質、外放、一絲不茍、開放和令人愉悅，得出結論說個性並不受到你是老大、老么或是排行居中所影響。

But science is increasingly showing that your birth order can affect who you are in different ways - older siblings are smarter on average, while the youngest are healthier.

但科學漸漸顯示，你在手足間的排行，會以不同方式影響你是誰——一般而言，排行較上面的比較聰明，老么比較健康。

In the Leipzig study a small difference in intelligence was found - firstborns tended to be slightly more intelligent than their younger siblings, who are in turn slightly more intelligent than their younger siblings.

萊比錫大學這份研究中，發現智力有些許差別，最先出生的會比弟弟妹妹聰明一點點，而他們又會比更小的弟妹聰明一些。

新聞辭典

envious：形容詞，羨慕的，嫉妒的。例句：I’m very envious of your new coat - it’s lovely.（我真羨慕你的新外套，好漂亮。）

neurotic：形容詞，神經過敏的，神經質的。例句：She’s neurotic about her weight - she weighs herself three times a day.（她對體重很在意——每天要量3次。）

conscientious：形容詞，一絲不茍的。例句：a conscientious student 認真的學生。

全通翻譯引用自 http://iservice.ltn.com.tw/Service/english/english...