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Life

07th Apr 2015

Good news if you have a clever older brother or sister

Not because they have more money

Joe Harrington

Being younger is a help apparently.

It’s really handy having an older brother or sister to look up to.

They are always there for advice and those times your bank account is running low on a Thursday night.

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It turns out that older sibling offer more than just a relatively safe loan shark, the smarter they are, the better for you.

A study by University of Essex and University of York found that older siblings play an important role in helping educate their brothers or sisters.

If you deartháir or deirfiúr are good at school, even better, because younger siblings will want to emulate the oldest by following their example.

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The “spillover effect” as it’s known is the first time empirical evidence has been found to back up the old belief that the oldest kid set the standard.

The effect is considerably higher for siblings from deprived backgrounds.

That’s just another reason to tease your younger sibling, you basically molded their education, sort of.

Hat-tip to i100.

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