Creativity, birth order, and risk taking

Several hypotheses were formed and supported regarding the greater creativity and risk taking of firstborn males. It was also found, in this sample of 200 white middle-class adult males, that risk taking and creativity were related. The creativity measures included Eisenman’s (1969) Personal Opinion Survey measure of creative attitudes, an unusual-uses test yielding scores for fluency and originality, and preference for complexity. All the predictions were significant beyond the.01 level. The greater risk taking of firstborn males found in the present study is some-what incompatible with the results of previous birth-order/risk-taking research, and this discrepancy is discussed.