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Classic older child? What the science says about birth order and personality

We all know the cliches about older siblings being responsible, younger ones being creative, and middle children being peacemakers. But is there any evidence our position in the family has an impact on our personality? Madeleine Finlay meets Dr Julia Rohrer, a personality psychologist at the University of Leipzig, to unpick the science behind our intuition about birth order. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod

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  AI, algorithms and apps: can dating be boiled down to a science?

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  Backstabbing, bluffing and playing dead: has AI learned to deceive?

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  How much protein is too much?

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  Why are the world’s cities sinking?

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  The extraordinary promise of personalised cancer vaccines

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  The stream of plastic pollution: could a global treaty help us turn off th…

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  From birds, to cattle, to … us? Could bird flu be the next pandemic?

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  Hardwired to eat: what can our dogs teach us about obesity?

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  Who really wins if the Enhanced Games go ahead?

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  Soundscape ecology: a window into a disappearing world

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  The senior Swiss women who went to court over climate change, and won

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  Remembering physicist Peter Higgs

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  Horny tortoises and solar mysteries: what scientists can learn from a tota…

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  The science of ‘weird shit’: why we believe in fate, ghosts and conspiracy…

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  Hypermobility: a blessing or a curse?

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  The virus that infects almost everyone, and its link to cancer and MS