demographics – Tim DeRoche https://timderoche.com Tim DeRoche, author of The Ballad of Huck & Miguel Thu, 02 Aug 2018 21:27:05 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.3.17 First-borns are taking over — Should we be afraid? https://timderoche.com/2018/08/02/first-borns-are-taking-over-should-we-be-afraid-2/ Thu, 02 Aug 2018 21:27:05 +0000 https://timderoche.com/?p=2728 Over at The Cut, Adam Sternbergh bemoans the slow-motion extinction of the middle child. As fewer families have more than two children, the number of middle-born children declines. Dramatically. I’m interested in a related phenomenon — the fact that first-borns are a much greater percentage of the population now than in previous decades. Using the chart above from the Pew Research Center, I estimate that first-borns have gone from about one-third of the population born from 1950-1975 to over 50% of the population born from 1990-2014. Effects of birth-order on personality seem to be largely overblown.  But what if there is some small tendency of first-borns to be more conforming, more socially dominant, less open to new ideas.  Could those small effects — multiplied across our whole society — be contributing to the change in how we talk to each other about politics? It’s pure speculation, of course.  But it makes this first-born wonder. HT Althouse.

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Over at The Cut, Adam Sternbergh bemoans the slow-motion extinction of the middle child. As fewer families have more than two children, the number of middle-born children declines. Dramatically.

I’m interested in a related phenomenon — the fact that first-borns are a much greater percentage of the population now than in previous decades. Using the chart above from the Pew Research Center, I estimate that first-borns have gone from about one-third of the population born from 1950-1975 to over 50% of the population born from 1990-2014.

Effects of birth-order on personality seem to be largely overblown.  But what if there is some small tendency of first-borns to be more conforming, more socially dominant, less open to new ideas.  Could those small effects — multiplied across our whole society — be contributing to the change in how we talk to each other about politics?

It’s pure speculation, of course.  But it makes this first-born wonder.

HT Althouse.

The post First-borns are taking over — Should we be afraid? appeared first on Tim DeRoche.

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