Middle children tend to score high on cooperative traits.
Fellow middle children, our time has finally come. We've been biding our time, knee deep in our Middle Child Syndrome, waiting for the truth we've known all along to come to light, and now it has. Research has determined that we, the middle children of the world, are officially the best.
At least that's what some of us are taking away from a birth order study published in December 2024, one of the largest ever to analyze whether birth order impacts personality. For decades, research has been mixed on that question and the most recent thinking based on data has been that birth order doesn't really matter, but that hasn't stopped people from assigning all kinds of personality traits to oldest, youngest, middle and only children. Now, however, according to Canadian researchers who sorted through personality survey responses from 700,000 adults, it appears that middle kids grow up to be more honest, humble, and agreeable—traits that are key elements of cooperation and collaboration.
In other words, we make the best humans, because what quality is more important in a civilized society than fair, honest, humble cooperation? None, that's what. (No questions, please. Let us middle kids have something, for the love.)
The study used the HEXACO personality inventory, which has become one of the most widely-used personality assessments in the past two decades. It measures six key traits, which are seen across cultures: Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience.
"“Most previous research had found that adults’ personality trait levels were unrelated to their birth order,” study authors Michael Ashton of Brock University and Kibeom Lee of the University of Calgary told PsyPost. “When we started collecting online personality data about 10 years ago, we decided to include birth order in our survey, because we were measuring a wider array of personality traits than had been examined in previous research. We found—somewhat to our surprise—that birth order was related to some personality traits, and we then added a question to our survey about sibship size (i.e., number of siblings, including oneself).”
People from large families tend to score higher on Honesty-Humility and Agreeableness. Photo credit: Canva
Middle children scored higher on Honesty-Humility and Agreeableness in the HEXACO framework, as did children from larger families. Here's how the researchers describe those traits:
Honesty-Humility: Persons with very high scores on the Honesty-Humility scale avoid manipulating others for personal gain, feel little temptation to break rules, are uninterested in lavish wealth and luxuries, and feel no special entitlement to elevated social status. Conversely, persons with very low scores on this scale will flatter others to get what they want, are inclined to break rules for personal profit, are motivated by material gain, and feel a strong sense of self-importance.
Agreeableness (versus Anger): Persons with very high scores on the Agreeableness scale forgive the wrongs that they suffered, are lenient in judging others, are willing to compromise and cooperate with others, and can easily control their temper. Conversely, persons with very low scores on this scale hold grudges against those who have harmed them, are rather critical of others' shortcomings, are stubborn in defending their point of view, and feel anger readily in response to mistreatment.
See? The best.
In all fairness (here's one of those strong middle child traits breaking through), the researchers did point out that the difference, while statistically significant, was modest and that you can't really draw any conclusions about any one individual based on their birth order.
"One way to think of it is like this: If you choose at random someone who was an only child and someone who grew up in a family of six or more kids, there’s a 60% chance that the more agreeable or cooperative person of these two will be the latter (as opposed to 50% if there were no difference). So, you can’t tell much about the personality of a given individual from their birth order or family size, even though there are clear differences when averaging across many people,” Ashton and Lee told Psypost.
Whatever. Middle children know. We've always known. Oldest kids get the leadership skills. Youngest kids get to be spoiled. Let us have this one thing.
- Dr. Gabor Maté explains his 'no two children have the same parents' philosophy ›
- Celebrate National Middle Child Day with these 5 incredible facts. ›
- 7 traits that make Middle Childs so special ›
- Teacher bucks trend by saying students should know their reading grade level - Upworthy ›
- Scientists have uncovered 7 reasons middle children are actually the best - Upworthy ›
- 7 innate traits that make Middle Children the best children - Upworthy ›
A Generation Jones teenager poses in her room.Image via Wikmedia Commons
An office kitchen.via 
An angry man eating spaghetti.via 
Gif of baby being baptized
Woman gives toddler a bath Canva
An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
- YouTube youtube.com
Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.