Characteristics of last born children

Jeffrey Kluger, Science Journalist & Author, explains how results of recent studies on the last born child and some of the positive and negative characteristics they often posses
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Characteristics of last born children

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Last borns have a lot of fun. Last borns tend to be able to charm and disarm better than older borns can. They tend to be funnier. They tend to be more intuitive. They tend to have a greater likelihood of being comedians of being satirists, of being performers, all of this because they learn what are called low power skills in the playroom. You're the smallest one in the playroom, you're the one most likely to get slugged, you're the one least capable of defending yourself, so you rapidly become intuitive. You rapidly learn what's going on in someone else's mind so you can take preventive steps against it. You also learn to be funny, because it's very very hard to pounce on someone who's making you laugh. Last borns also tend to be rebels because they are born into a system in which it's to their advantage to blow up the existing power structure. They're the youngest, they're the weakest, they will fight to change that. Oldest borns are born into a situation in which it's to their interest to preserve the power structure. One of my favorite stats from my book is while all children of all ages are equally likely to engage in demonstrations or civil disobedience, youngest borns are likelier to get arrested while doing it.

Jeffrey Kluger, Science Journalist & Author, explains how results of recent studies on the last born child and some of the positive and negative characteristics they often posses

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Jeffrey Kluger

Science Journalist & Author

Jeffrey Kluger is a senior editor and writer at Time magazine, covering science, health and other fields. He is the coauthor, along with astronaut Jim Lovell, of Apollo 13, the book that served as the basis of the 1995 movie. His more-recent release, Splendid Solution, told the story of Jonas Salk and the Polio Vaccine.  His novel, Nacky Patcher and the Curse of the Dry-Land Boats, was published in June 2007, and his newest nonfiction book, Simplexity: Why Simple Things Become Complex, was published in June 2008.

Before coming to Time, Kluger worked for Discover magazine, where he was a senior editor and humor columnist. Prior to that, he was health editor at Family Circle magazine, story editor at The New York Times Business World Magazine, and Associate Editor at Science Digest magazine. His features and columns have appeared in dozens of publications, including The New York Times Magazine, Gentlemen's Quarterly, The Wall Street Journal, Cosmopolitan, Omni, McCall's, New York Magazine, The New York Post, Newsday, and, of course, Time. He has worked as an adjunct instructor in the graduate journalism program at New York University; is a licensed—though non-practicing—attorney; and is a graduate of the University of Maryland and the University of Baltimore School of Law. He lives in New York City with his wife Alejandra and their daughters, Elisa and Paloma.

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