How Can Siblings Be Such Total Opposites?

If you've ever looked at your very different children and wondered how they could possibly share the same DNA, same parents, and same upbringing, you're not alone— and you're not imagining things.

Research shows that while siblings are usually more alike in appearance and intelligence than we sometimes think, their personalities are as different from one another as they would be from a stranger on the street.

Why is that? This week, we discuss:

• Why siblings can have vastly different personalities despite common upbringings
• How birth order influences family dynamics
• Why "de-identification" tends to be more intense when siblings are closer in age
• Why "the same household" doesn't actually tell the whole story Here are links to some of the resources mentioned in the episode:

• Alix Spiegel for NPR: Siblings Share Genes, But Rarely Personalities
• Dr. Robert Plomin and Dr. Judy Dunn: Why Are Siblings So Different? The Significance of Differences in Sibling Experiences Within the Family
• Dr. Frank Sullaway: Why Siblings Are Like Darwin's Finches: Birth Order, Sibling Competition, and Adaptive Divergence within the Family
• Daniel Goleman for the NYT: Each Sibling Experiences a Different Family
• Dr. Robert Plomin and Dr Denise Daniels: Why are Children in the Same Family So Different From One Another?
• Science Daily: Parents’ Comparisons Make Siblings Different
• Dr. Alexander Jensen and Dr. Susan McHale: What makes siblings different? The development of sibling differences in academic achievement and interests.
• Annie Wright, LMFT: Same Family, Different Survival: Why You and Your Sibling Turned Out So Differently

What Fresh Hell is co-hosted by Amy Wilson and Margaret Ables.

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