Tim Worstall

Birth Dates Matter!

Richard Morrison on evidence that the month of your brith has something to do with what talents you may have. As he correctly points out, this disturbingly provides something for the idiot astrologers to talk about: while the idea that where someone is in a school year, or the amount of sunshine they get as a baby, or the peaks or troughs of infections over a year, might also be valid explanations.

There’s a very simple way to test this. Are the results from the Southern Hemisphere the same as, or in reverse, from those in the Northern?

In

4 responses

  1. Tristan Avatar
    Tristan

    Where you are in the school year has big effects on children. The maturity differential over a year when entering school can be very high and children at the end of the school year can take years to catch up with their contemporaries.
    Perhaps diet has an effect – although less so now with our global trade, but in season food during pregnancy could have an effect also.

    Reply
  2. Ian Reid Avatar
    Ian Reid

    It’s early this year. This story usually appears in August during the silly season when nothing much is happening and column inches need to be filled.
    See an explanation here:-
    http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/extreme_value_fallacy.htm

    Reply
  3. David Gillies Avatar
    David Gillies

    My birthday is September 1st, which in my LEA was the cut-off date for deciding which year you started primary school. I was far and away the oldest in my first year, and advanced to the eight year olds’ class because I was so far ahead of my fellow pupils (my mother had taught me to read and write and my father had taught me times tables long before the state school system got its mitts on me). Then I left to attend prep school, where I was the youngest (and smallest) in my year. This persisted up until the last year of prep school, when I became the oldest in the year. Similarly, at public school I was the oldest, which meant, for example, I was the first in the Upper Sixth to obtain the coveted green card which allowed one to legally drink in a number of local pubs. I was twenty when I started my BSc, and people do a lot of growing up between eighteen and twenty.

    Reply
  4. Jim Winfieldj Avatar
    Jim Winfieldj

    Need a spell-checker?
    “Brith”? The Hebrew word “covenant” or, colloqially, the circumcision of males on the 8th day?
    Unless you meant it – and the date of birth is less significant than a routine, minor operation a week later.

    Reply

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