A lot is being said about a person and his personality traits as per his birth order. Like the oldest one will be the most intelligent, but bossy and the youngest one would be rebellious and the middle child is cooperative. But a new study has found that there is not much truth in these statements.

Study researchers from the University of Mainz and Leipzig in Germany have found while carrying out the study that personality traits like emotional stability, cooperative and extraversion have nothing to do with birth-order.

Researcher Stefan Schmukle said that whether person’s birth position among siblings has an effect on personality has confused scientists for more than 100 years. In the study, the researchers have gathered data from more than 20,000 adults from Germany, the United States and Great Britain.

Participants were given questions that checked their IQ and Big Five Personality Inventory among other factors. It shall be noted that the study has found some confirmations like eldest sibling having the highest IQ scores but decline in the score when turn of youngest sibling comes.

It could be because parents spend the maximum time with their first born. But when it comes to other personality traits, the researchers have not found anything statistical significance.

“The real news of our study is that we found no substantial effects of birth order on any of the personality dimensions we examined. This does not only contradict prominent psychological theories, but also goes against the intuition of many people”, affirmed Schmukle.