Does the order of birth of children in the family affect their intellectual level?
One of the important and insufficiently studied aspects of the formation of individual qualities of a person's personality is the order of birth of children in a family. The answer to this question is acquiring particular relevance at the present time in connection with a significant decrease in the birth rate in most economically developed countries of the world.
Firstborns are weaker
The possibility of the influence of the order of birth of children in a family on their intellectual abilities is of interest to many researchers. According to I. Mechnikov, "... brilliant people only in rare cases were first-born children. In general, first-borns are weaker than subsequent children: they give a high mortality rate, and crime is more widespread among them." He supports his statement with the following facts: Shakespeare, Voltaire, Hugo and Peter I were born the third; Chopin, L. Tolstoy and Napoleon I - the fourth; Mozart, Wagner and Beaumarchais were the seventh. The exception, in his opinion, is only Goethe, who was born the firstborn from a 17-year-old mother. The opinion of others is consistent with this assumption researchers of this problem, according to whose observations, the first children in a family are often physically weaker and less viable than those born later, and are also less intellectually developed and have less opportunity for self-realization in society.
We have recently undertaken a study of the possibility of the influence of the order of birth of children in a family on the formation of their living intellectual level, the implementation of which has received well-deserved recognition in the world community. The biographical data of the Nobel Prize winners of the twentieth century in various fields of knowledge, who are undoubtedly outstanding representatives of their era, were used as the research material. We have studied the biographical data of 224 Nobel laureates.
First of all, it should be noted that the families in which the leading personalities were born were large, which reflected the general demographic situation of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For example, the future leaders in the field of literature, Colombian novelist and journalist GM Marquez was the eldest, and the Danish novelist H. Pontoppidian was the fourth in families of 16 children, the Indian poet R. Tagore was the youngest of his 14 brothers and sisters, and the German doctor and bacteriologist R. Koch is the third of 13 children.
The analysis showed that among 224 Nobel laureates, 46.9% of children were the first in their families, 18.8% second, 17.9% third, 6.7% fourth, 4% fifth. sixth - 0.9%, seventh - 3.2%, eighth - 0.9%, ninth - 0.5% and fourteenth - 0.5%. These data indicate a significant predominance of first-born persons in the total cohort of laureates. Among them, prominent persons in physics were 30.4%, physiology and medicine - 21%, literature - 19.8%, chemistry - 16%, peace prizes - 10.2% and economics - 2.6%.
The data on small families in which future laureates were born turned out to be interesting. The only child in the family was 28 people, 7 of them were brought up by one of the parents.
The results of the first stage of the study served as the basis for a more detailed study of the factor of the order of birth of children in a family at their intellectual level. For this purpose, at the second stage of our work, we studied in detail the most complete biographical data of 62 laureates in the field of physiology and medicine. In the course of the study, it turned out that the families in which the future ones were born in this area were also quite numerous. In total, these 62 families had 251 children.
During their lifetime, 74.8% of Nobel laureates got married once (the average age of marriage is 29.8 years), two or more - 20%, and 5.1% of persons were not married. Fifteen scientists (24.2%) did not leave offspring behind. Of the 251 children in 62 analyzed families, 62 were subsequently awarded Nobel laureates in physiology and medicine. Among the first-born children, there were 24 (38.7%), the second born - 16 (25.8%), the third - 9 (14.5%), the fourth - 3 (4.8%), the fifth - 5 (8 , 2%), sixth - 1 (1.6%), seventh - 3 (4.8%) and ninth -1 (1.6%).
From a young age
The future laureates in the field of physiology and medicine showed their intellectual abilities at a young age. They became bachelors at the age of 20.6, and masters at 23.6. For further study, they chose, as a rule, large scientific centers of the world, where they carried out doctoral dissertations under the guidance of famous scientists. The average age of candidates for a degree is 26.8 years.
At the same time, under the age of 25, 36.6% defended their dissertations, 26-30 years old - 51.9% and over 30 - 11.6% of future Nobel laureates. The average age for receiving the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is 55.6 years. The life expectancy of Nobel laureates in physiology or medicine is 76.8 years. Among them, 42.9% of the awardees have lived for more than 80 years.
Our results allow us to make some assumptions. The birth rate on the Earth of the biological species inhabiting it is under constant control of the regulating forces of nature. In contrast to the animal kingdom, human fertility has a pronounced dependence on social factors and is characterized by a historical tendency to decrease it from biological maximum to conscious regulation (or from "mortality control" to "birth control"). It is believed that in the absence of birth control by the state, each family would have an average of 7 children. In Russia, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, there were, on average, 7.5 births of children for every thousand women, and at the end of the 20th century this figure dropped to 1.4-1.8. According to calculations, about 260 births per 100 families are needed to ensure population reproduction. A decrease in the average number of children born by one woman during her reproductive period, less than 2.15, is considered a fatal facet of population reproduction. In the former USSR, family size was approximately 3.5 people (from 3.1 in Latvia to 5.7 in Tajikistan). The concept of "intellect" comes from the Latin word intellectus (which means knowledge, understanding, reason) and reflects the ability of a person to think and rational knowledge. This definition is identical to the Latin translation of the ancient Greek concept of nus (mind). Special attention in assessing the formation of mental abilities of children Russian thinker A. Radishchev paid attention to the differences in the temperament of their personalities: “And whoever treats children clearly understands that since temperaments are different in people, then the mental strengths should inevitably differ in each person.” The well-known psychologist A. Libin also believes that the mechanism the formation of a subject-oriented, communication-oriented and self-oriented personality structure is rooted in the depths of its temperament and preferences in the formation of behavioral strategies, and its top is the highest levels of the personal hierarchy, manifested in the form of the direction of development - towards oneself, towards an object or towards others ...
Education and genius
When assessing the mental abilities of a person, the concept of the genius of a person stands out completely. According to C. Lombroso, genius and talent are difficult to distinguish among themselves. Reproaching the English psychologist and anthropologist, one of the founders of eugenics (the theory of human hereditary abilities) and differential psychology F. Galton in the frequent mixing of these concepts with each other, he considered this shortcoming his own, from which “it is not always easy to get rid of.” Outstanding Russian psychiatrist and the clinician V. Chizh believed that ". upbringing, the influence of relatives and friends have very little effect on genius people. Biographers usually try to explain the life and work of a genius by the influence of the environment on him, forgetting that a genius both perceives and processes differently than we ordinary people; genius is usually distinguished by both extreme independence and enormous originality. We do not understand genius at all, and I think that we cannot understand genius. "It is likely that modern science is now approaching deciphering the phenomenon of genius, using various, including molecular, methods of studying the work of the brain ...
In addition to the effect of the influence of family size, the system-forming factor in the formation of a child's personality, according to A. Libin, influences all levels of individuality equally, is the style of upbringing. The general atmosphere in the family influences the level of children's intelligence development: the presence of an interesting and complex physical environment corresponding to the age and level of development of children, emotional responsiveness and active interaction with the child of parents and older children in the family, avoidance of restrictions, accusations and excessive control over their behavior, emphasizing any achievements of the child. According to our data, the largest number of Nobel laureates were the eldest children in the families of their parents: among the first-borns there were 38.7%, second-borns - 25.8%, third-borns - 14.5%, fourth-borns - 4.8%, etc. etc. decreasing. It is probably impossible to give an unambiguous explanation for this fact. As one of the possible reasons for this phenomenon, it can be pointed out that first-borns, as a rule, receive more parental attention and have more contact with their parents than children born later, which stimulates their more active speech and then intellectual development at first. As a rule, first-borns play the role of mediators between parents and younger children, they are in more contact with them, actively adopting their experience, they perform teaching functions in the family, which accelerates their mental development. Older children play an important role in the family in the upbringing of their brothers and sisters in the event of the loss of one of the parents, which greatly stimulates their social activity. In the worst position in this respect is the youngest child, who is unable to perform a teaching function in relation to other family members. It is possible that the absence of such initial skills does not contribute to the formation of their subsequent desire to take a leading position in various life situations. It is likely that this circumstance is typical of large families, in which younger children during their life still show less intellectual activity in society.
Alexander LITVINOV, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor of the Smolensk State Medical University.
What factors can predict future performance? One of the most common hypotheses is the concept of a direct relationship between the level of intelligence and human achievement. Like, showed in the IQ test of 170 points - that's all, get ready to receive the Nobel Prize.
A prominent representative of the scientific school that supported this theory was Lewis Terman, professor of psychology at Stanford University. In 1921, the scientist was lucky to receive a solid grant. As a result, a team of specialists was assembled to test the intellectual development of children. Among the 250,000 students in primary and secondary schools in America, 1,470 children were identified, whose IQ ranged from 140 to 200 points. This group of young geniuses was called "Termites" and became the subject of one of the most famous psychological studies in history.
Terman, like a brood hen, did not take his eyes off his charges until the end of his life. He tracked their lives, tested, measured and analyzed, celebrated academic achievements, monitored the development of family relationships, collected information about all diseases, recorded the state of mental health, diligently documented any promotion and job change.
Lewis Terman
« In a person, there is nothing more important than the level of his intelligence, except perhaps morality"Terman once said. He was convinced that people with high IQs "are able to move forward science, art, education, government and social well-being in general." When Terman's men were still in high school, he enthusiastically wrote: "Read any newspaper article about any competition that was held in California, and you will definitely see the names of one or more members of our talented group on the list of winners." He invited literary critics to compare the literary samples of his creatively gifted little "termites" with the early works of famous writers. And they could not find any significant differences. All signs pointed to a group with potential "heroic character." Terman was convinced that the termites were destined to become the future elite of the United States.
And after 50 years, it became obvious that Terman was wrong. Some of his geeks have written books, scientific articles, or succeeded in business. Several people held government positions. Among them were two High Court justices, one municipal court judge, two members of the California Legislature, and one senior official. But few have become national figures. Many made a decent income - but not fabulous profits. The careers of most of them can be considered quite ordinary, and surprisingly many former termites even Terman himself recognized as losers.
Among such carefully selected geniuses, none has won a Nobel Prize. Interestingly, Terman's colleagues at one time tested two future Nobel laureates, then elementary school students William Shockley and Luis Alvarez, and rejected both. They didn't have a high enough IQ.
In his devastating critical article, sociologist Pitirim Sorokin came to the following conclusion: if Terman had collected a group of randomly selected children from the same families as termites, and did not assess their IQ, then representatives of this group would have achieved no less impressive results. than carefully selected geniuses.
At the conclusion of the fourth volume of The Genetic Study of Geniuses, the word “genius” disappeared. The more than disappointed Terman wrote: “ We made sure that intelligence and success are not in the least interconnected».
A sad outcome ... Or vice versa? 🙂 It turns out that people with IQ slightly above average have no less chances of success than those whose indicators are striving for exorbitant heights? Or maybe more ... But what determines this very success? Does anyone have versions? 🙂 Write! And a little later I will give the opinions of world-class experts on this matter.
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72 years is the average age of the announced 2016 award winners. But this was not always the case. Why is the average age of the winners of the prestigious award increasing every year?
The 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics, Medicine and Chemistry is exclusively male. The youngest of them is 65 years old, while the majority are over 72.
However, at the beginning of the 20th century, the average age of the laureates was only 56 years old. Physics awards averaged 47 at the time, while now they are mostly men on the cusp of their 70s.
In fact, from the early 1950s to the present day, there has been a clear trend: the Nobel Prize winners in the natural sciences and exact sciences have gotten older and older.
You can often hear tales that this or that writer or philosopher, who lived several centuries ago, became the last person to read all the books that existed at that time.
This, of course, sounds somewhat dubious, but one thing is absolutely clear - the volume of human knowledge has increased many times since then. Maybe it is precisely because of this amount of information that it is possible to make a scientific discovery only at an advanced age?
Most likely, this is not the case.
Gustav Kaelstrand, senior curator at the Nobel Museum in Stockholm, says there were only about 1,000 physicists in the world 100 years ago. Today there are already about a million of them.
“One of the important factors is that now the Nobel Prize is not awarded immediately after a perfect discovery - the laureates have to wait a long time,” he says.
Many scientists still make discoveries early in their professional careers, but there are thousands of people out there who do much the same. The Nobel committee has to carry out a lot of checks, so many years can pass between the discovery and receiving the award.
The question, however, remains open. The number of writers, economists and "peacemakers" has also grown exponentially compared to the last century, but the laureates in these fields remain quite young. Why is it the physicists who receive the Nobel Prizes at such an advanced age?
The reason may be in the scientific revolution that took place at the beginning of the twentieth century and caused a rapid growth of knowledge in such a field as quantum mechanics.
According to Kaelstrand, physics in the first half of the last century was a rapidly developing field of knowledge, many scientists were very young and made scientific discoveries incredibly quickly.
And this did not go unnoticed by the members of the Nobel Committee.
“They were interested in this area, so they followed what was happening and quickly confirmed the findings,” explains Kaelstrand.
Werner Heisenberg (whose name later became the nickname of the hero of the popular television series Breaking Bad) and Paul Dirac were only 31 years old when in 1932 they won the Nobel Prize in physics for their work in the field of quantum mechanics.
This can be compared to the invention of a new set of tools, which made it possible to quickly make more and more new discoveries. Or, as one scientist condescendingly put it, led to "mediocre physicists discovering great physics."
As for Nobel Peace Prize winners whose age does not fit the general trend, Kaelstrand notes that the awarding of awards in this area is very different from others.
“The committee that decides on the nominees for the peace prize is trying to fit the agenda. They are not waiting to see if the efforts made by the laureates will succeed or, say, a democratic regime in Indonesia,” he says.
A very slow revolution
Despite all the changes in science and humanitarian affairs, one indicator remains constant: the vast majority of Nobel laureates are men.
Due to the "delayed effect", when, as a result of booming science, potential winners wait for their awards for years, this situation reflects the gender inequality that was normal several decades ago.
Science is still a predominantly male field, but the picture is improving somewhat as the time gap between discoveries and awards narrows. So it is possible that the number of women laureates will soon increase significantly.
Nobel Museum staff assured the BBC that despite the lack of evidence that the committee is deliberately ignoring the work of women scientists, there is a story of one case where a decision was made to violate the rules for the presentation of the award.
When Maria Sklodowska-Curie was not nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1903, her husband, who helped her with her research on radioactivity, refused to accept the award. Then the committee formally accepted her application, filed back in 1902, as a result of which Curie became the first woman in the world to receive the Nobel Prize.
1 United States of America - 270:
This fact in itself is not a surprise, the country still has the best research institutes and a whole galaxy of remarkable scientists. However, something else is surprising. The country has been losing its leading positions in recent years, their share among the Nobel Prize winners has been steadily decreasing. Throughout the 1960s, the United States has consistently had the maximum number of Nobel laureates, and now their share is just over 50%. Maybe not in principle, but the fact remains that other countries are beginning to regain their positions in the field of science and literature.
2 Great Britain - 117:
The country is home to a number of world renowned universities as well as top research centers. It is quite logical that the representatives of Great Britain are the second in the number of laureates in medicine and the first among the holders of the literary prize. After all, the British have produced some of the finest literary works in a century.
3 Germany - 103:
Germany is not that far behind on this list. So far, it is represented by 30 laureates in chemistry and 32 physics. Their winning rate has also gradually declined over the years, thanks to developing countries that are gradually crowding out established leaders.
4 France - 57:
At some distance France is located, most of the prizes were received by representatives of this country in the field of literature and medicine. Their most famous medalist was Jean Paul Sartre, who turned down the award, and of course husband and wife Marie and Pierre Curie, who were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1903 and 1911. Maria Curie received the prize after her husband's death, in the field of chemistry.
The country of origin of the award has 28 laureates to date.
In 1903 Svante Arrhenius received the first prize in chemistry, and in 1982, Alva Myrdal was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her activities in the field of disarmament.
6 Switzerland - 25:
If you count the number of winners per capita, then Switzerland would certainly be at the top of the table. It has three Nobel laureates per million inhabitants. The list of winners is represented by names such as Hermann Hesse in the field of literature and Albert Einstein in the field of physics.
7 USSR - Russia - 23:
Mikhail Gorbachev, who received the Peace Prize in 1990, Boris Pasternak, who was forced to refuse the literary prize in 1958, and Alexander Solzhenitsyn, whose literary award contributed to his expulsion from the country in 1970. The list of laureates, representatives of the country, includes many big names in almost all nominations.
8 Austria - 20:
The first representative of this country to receive the award was Baroness Bertha von Suttner, who received the Peace Prize in 1905. The country is represented by seven medical nominees.
9 Canada - 20:
Canada has also received twenty Nobel Prizes, seven of which were in chemistry. Their most recent winners, Willard Boyle in physics and Jack Shostak in medicine or physiology, both received the award in 2009.
10 Netherlands - 19:
Another small nation, but it also has a number of Nobel Prize winners. Among the first representatives of this country to receive the award were physicists Peter Zeeman and Hendrik Lorenz, who jointly received it in 1902.
We decided to find out in which countries the smartest people live. But what is the main indicator of intelligence? Perhaps the IQ of a person, better known as IQ. Actually, our rating is based on this quantitative assessment. We also decided to take into account the Nobel laureates living in a particular country at the time of receiving the prize: after all, this indicator indicates what place the state occupies in the intellectual arena of the world.
a place
ByIQ: administrative region
In general, more than one study has been conducted on the relationship between intelligence and peoples. So, according to the two most popular works - "IQ and Global Inequality" and "IQ and Wealth of Nations" - the people of East Asia are ahead of the planet.
In Hong Kong, the level of the IQ of a person is 107 points. But here it should be borne in mind that the administrative region has a very high population density.
The United States is ahead of other countries in the number of Nobel Prize winners by a huge margin. 356 laureates live (and have lived) here (from 1901 to 2014). But it is worth saying that statistics here are not entirely related to nationality: in institutes and research centers, scientists from different countries are very well supported, and they often have much more opportunities in the States than in their home state. For example, Joseph Brodsky received the Literature Prize as a citizen.
a place
By IQ: South Korea
South Koreans have an IQ of 106. However, being one of the smartest countries is not easy. For example, the education system in the state is one of the most technologically advanced, but at the same time complex and strict: they graduate from school only at the age of 19, and there is such terrible competition when entering a university that many simply cannot withstand such stress mentally.
By the number of Nobel laureates:
In total, the British received 121 Nobel Prizes. According to statistics, residents of the United Kingdom receive awards every year.
a place
IQ: Japan
The Japanese have an IQ of 105. And, probably, this is not surprising, since it is one of the most hardworking nations. As a result, Japan has gone far in the development of high technologies, and the quality of their products is always at their best. The University of Tokyo is ranked among the best universities in the world, and the Japanese literacy rate is 99%.
By the number of Nobel laureates:
Well, as for the laureates of the prestigious award, it is in third place. It is home to 104 people who have received awards in various fields.
a place
IQ: Taiwan
In fourth place is again the country of Asia - Taiwan, an island controlled by the partially recognized Republic of China. A country renowned for its industry and productivity, today it is one of the top suppliers of high technology. The local government has great plans for the future: they want to turn the state into a "silicon island", an island of technology and science.
The average IQ level of residents is 104 points.
By the number of Nobel laureates:
There are 57 Nobel Prize winners in France. First of all, they are leaders in the humanities: there are a lot of laureates in philosophy, literature and art living in the country.
a place
The average IQ of the inhabitants of this city-country is 103 points. As you know, it is one of the leading commercial centers in the world. And one of the most prosperous and wealthy countries, even the World Bank called the best country for doing business.
By the number of Nobel laureates:
Well, finally, the homeland of Nobel himself got into the rating. There are 29 people awarded in various fields.
a place
Three countries at once have an average IQ of 102 points. Well, there is even nothing to say: there has never been a shortage of philosophers and scientists in Germany, Austria has a very disciplined and well-developed educational system, but the geniuses of Italy can be counted from the time of Ancient Rome.
By the number of Nobel laureates:
Switzerland has 25 Nobel Prizes, mostly in the exact sciences. The country is known all over the world for its private schools and universities with excellent indicators of the level of education.
a place
And again, only now in terms of IQ, which is 101 points. The state is one of the leaders in terms of the number of citizens with higher education. And, of course, this is one of the most prosperous countries.
By number of Nobel laureates: Russia
In Russia (together with the USSR) 23 Nobel laureates who received awards. Physiologist Ivan Pavlov brought the first prize to Russia. Well, if we talk about laureates who were born on the territory of the Russian Empire and the USSR or did not have Russian citizenship at the time of receiving the award, then the number will increase to 38.
The average IQ of residents of Russia is 97 points (11th place, shares it with the USA, Finland and the Czech Republic).