In many families, there is always someone who is known as the jokester. It seems as if they are always trying to do something funny and in many cases, they are successful at making us laugh. Some people may think that it is the older sibling who is able to joke around the most because of their extra experience, and they do have their younger siblings as an audience. But a recent poll might suggest otherwise.
Thanks to a recent poll by YouGov all scores have now been settled, as the survey has revealed that the youngest sibling are hands down the funniest (win for me). In part, this is due to the older child being overwhelmed with responsibility and that can lead to a more serious tone. We have often suspected that birth order is related to our character, and it appears as if being a comedian goes to the last born.
The other characteristics which the poll asked respondents (all siblings) to consider, is which child is more relaxed (youngest, but only by 3%), more responsible, successful, organized and self-confident (all oldest). It seems there are no statistics for which siblings, older or younger, view themselves as the more grumpy, spoilt, aggressive and selfish. Perhaps birth order is a field of study that prefers to look on the bright side.
In part, the poll mentions:
“Splitting out the first and last born siblings in British families with more than one child (86 per cent of the population), a clear divide in personality traits emerges.”
Perhaps one of the most significant parts of the poll is that 54% of the older children said that they were more responsible than their younger counterparts. The younger siblings, on the other hand, consider themselves to be easy-going and funny.
And the internet had a lot to say about this poll (obviously):
But some pointed out that there are always exceptions:
* A correction has been made to this story clarifying this was based on a poll by YouGov which conducts surveys through online methods and not based on official “research”.
There you go younger siblings – you’re the one laughing now.