Taylor Swift is a lot of things—superstar, billionaire, business woman. She’s also a sibling—big sister to little brother Austin, 33, an actor and producer. She clearly loves her baby bro. In her 2008 song “The Best Day,” she sings, “God smiles on my little brother inside out/ He’s better than I am.” On her new album, The Life of a Showgirl, Swift returns to the same theme with the song “Eldest Daughter,” but this time around she takes a darker view of things. “Every eldest daughter was the first lamb to the slaughter,” she sings. “Every youngest child felt they were raised up in the wild.”
Despite the emphasis on children and siblings, “Eldest Daughter” reads as more of a love song to Swift’s fiancé Travis Kelce—who is himself a youngest child. In the song’s happiest passage, she sings: “Ferris wheel, kisses, and lilacs/ And things I said were dumb/ ’Cause I never thought I’d find that beautiful, beautiful life that/ Shimmers the innocent light back/ Like when we were young.”
Still, it’s tough to escape the themes of home and brothers and sisters and family. So what was it like to grow up in a house with big sister Swift? That’s hard to know if you weren’t actually part of the family. But there’s a lot of good research out there on birth order, gender roles, and sibling dynamics in general. Here’s what the science says, according to my book The Sibling Effect:
High achievers
Firstborns, on the whole, are high achievers—a label that certainly fits Swift. Oldest children are disproportionately represented at Ivy League colleges, with one study showing that 66% of students at those elite schools were the oldest in the brood. Forty-three percent of CEOs are first-borns, compared to 33% for middle-borns and 23% for last-borns. Similarly, a plurality—42%—of members of Congress are first-borns.
High intelligence
Firstborns get an edge in intelligence too. There’s no way of knowing who’s the brainiac in the Swift brood, but one Norwegian study showed the oldest child has an IQ that averages three points higher than that of the second oldest, while the second child, in turn, is one point smarter than the third. That might not seem like much, but the researchers point to the fact that just 2.3 IQ points correlate to a 15-point bump in SAT scores. If you’re applying to Caltech or MIT, who would you rather be—the candidate with the 690 math score or the one with 705?
Health outcomes
Next comes health. Studies in the Philippines show that younger siblings tend to be shorter and weigh less than older siblings—a result perhaps of better nutrition for the older sibs in countries where food scarcity is a problem. Surveys show that younger siblings are less likely to be vaccinated than older ones. Kids with at least two older siblings are 50% more likely to have been taken to an emergency room with asthma-related breathing problems—a result, perhaps, of increased exposure to pathogens brought into the house by older sibs.
Family relationships
Firstborns, especially first-born girls, are more likely to be what researchers call “kin-keepers.” They’re the ones who maintain the family albums and scrapbooks; the ones who remember to plan a party for mom’s and dad’s anniversary; and the ones who show the most interest in joining the family business. In many families, younger siblings become rebels, breaking from those scripted roles and becoming artists or actors or—with surprising frequency—comics or satirists. Voltaire, Jonathan Swift and Mark Twain were among the youngest in large families. Taylor and Austin Swift break this rule, with both the oldest and youngest both becoming performers.
Parental favorites
Taylor is a global favorite, and if she’s like other first-borns she was a family favorite too. On pain of death, parents will refuse to admit that they prefer any of their children over any other—but what they admit in the home is not necessarily what they’ll admit to scientists. In one study conducted by sociologist Katherine Conger at the University of California, Davis, fully 65% of mothers and 70% of fathers confessed to having a favorite child. In the plurality of cases, it was the oldest one who got the nod.
“Eldest daughter syndrome”
Some family psychologists speak about a phenomenon called “eldest daughter syndrome.” First-born girls, goes the theory, face pressure to be something of an alloparent for their younger brothers and sisters—herding the sibling cats and keeping the household in order. This can lead to stress, perfectionist tendencies, and feeling not good enough when the other sibs inevitably misbehave. When the eldest daughter grows up, she might have difficulty forging adult relationships, a hard time expressing herself, and harbor feelings that her childhood was stolen from her.
The Swift sibs, for all Taylor’s fame, are in most ways like other sibs—brood mates and onetime housemates who, as Taylor’s songs suggest, will share close and complex bonds for life.
The post I Wrote a Book About Sibling Science. Here’s What I Make of Taylor Swift’s ‘Eldest Daughter’ appeared first on TIME.
