Older sisters and younger brothers: The impact of siblings on preference for competition

Hiroko Okudaira, Yusuke Kinari, Noriko Mizutani, Fumio Ohtake, Akira Kawaguchi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Psychology studies have long argued the possibility that sibling structure, such as birth order and the sex of siblings, shapes one's personality traits. One of the core issues involved is that of who rates subjects' personality traits in studies. The present studies (. N=. 135 in Study 1, N=. 232 in Study 2) surpassed the examinations performed in previous studies by obtaining information regarding one of the key personality traits, preference for competition, using a framework developed via experimental economics rather than subjective ratings. Despite the fact that the two studies involved different types of task, we consistently observed that older sisters exerted a significant impact on their younger siblings in both studies. In particular, having an older sister was negatively associated with men's competitive preferences. We also obtained suggestive evidence that having an older sister was positively associated with women's competitive preferences. Our results support sibling hypotheses from the perspective of experimental economics.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)81-89
Number of pages9
JournalPersonality and Individual Differences
Volume82
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 1 2015

Keywords

  • Competition
  • Experimental economics
  • Gender
  • Personality
  • Sibling competition

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Psychology(all)

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