The Pecking Order: A Bold New Look at How Family and Society Determine Who We Become (Vintage) Paperback – 12 April 2005

You couldn't wish to find a more wrong-headed book. Every page offers conclusions of such resounding incorrectness, it is staggering to behold. Just to deal with the central claim of the book, as touted on the back cover: there is huge income inequality between siblings, the author says, and this is fostered by each family's pecking order. (The significance of this is unclear.) It turns out, reading the footnotes, that siblings correlate on income around .5. I would call this a strong correlation, and I would not expect to find any stronger correlation amongst peers at school or in a neighbourhood. Besides, Income on its own is not a reliable indicator of life success - it is an unremarkable family that has one sibling on £60k pa and another on £30k pa, simply because they chose a fulfilling job that paid less. No story = no book.The book is nonetheless an interesting intellectual exercise. On every page, the author takes some facts and inevitably manages to infer something clunkingly inappropriate in the causation - and it's your job to work out why. For example, if child number one goes to private school, the chances that child 3 goes as well are x, but if child 2 goes then the chances of child 3 going are 2x. This, he concludes, demonstrates that parents put more investment into siblings of proximate age. Clearly it proves no such thing; the most simple (and unremarkable) conclusion to draw is that parents who can still afford to send child 2 to private school will almost definitely be able to send child 3, whereas in the former case their economic situation might have changed or they might have decided private education is not worth the expense.

An abundance of scientific study validate the empirical evidence presented in this book. It should be required reading for young adults who need to do some planning before starting their own families. Readers will better understand the dynamics of the families they grew up in and the family they may possibly be raising. I read this during my first pregnancy and still love this book.

Nature Nurture論争について社会科学者が書いた本．この手の本は行動遺伝学とか進化心理学についてすべて遺伝子決定論を主張するものと(誤解して)決め付け，それについてイデオロギチックな批判に終始する場合が多いらしいのだが，本書はそうではなく社会科学者から見た真実が主張されている，そういう意味では良心的な本である．本書の特徴は厚みのあるリサーチを読者に提示するためにアネクドータルな手法を中心に据えており，固有名詞のついた家族や兄弟の逸話がこれでもかこれでもかと語られる．そしてその中に真実を浮き彫りにしようという手法である．読み物としては面白い．(ただ逆に定量的な主張に欠けていて，客観的にはどうかという感じは残る)主張の中身は常識的なもの．人の運命(本書では特に現代アメリカにおける経済的な成功に的を絞っている)は単一の要因で決まるものではない．特に遺伝子や生まれの順序のみで決まるわけではない．現代アメリカの成功不成功の分布の4/3は兄弟における差で説明できる．つまり文化社会的な影響，ジェンダーにかかるまわりの環境，家族の歴史，そしてそれらからくるリソースの配分に大きく左右されるというもの．(要するに心理や生まれ順以外のリソースが重要ということで進化心理学やハリスの生まれ順説を批判しているということらしい，そもそも誰も単一要因を主張しているわけではないので批判にはなっていないが，複雑な真実を見るには非常に重要な観点をわかりやすく提示しているといえる)この逸話を積み重ねる手法の効果でいろいろ詳細が面白い．どういうケースで何が起こると誰が影響を受けるかがいろいろと語られる．たとえば兄弟の数が多いとどうしても親の配分する資源に限りが出て誰かがマイナスの影響を受けることになりやすい．誰が貧乏くじをひくかはさまざまだが一般的に下から2番目あたりが厳しいらしい．親が成功していけば後から生まれたほうがいいし，零落していったり．離婚するのならば下の子には厳しい．親族の世話をするのは女性のロールモデルという場合には娘には負担が押し付けられやすい．専業主婦の娘はキャリア的には成功しにくくなる．などなど．最後に著者自身の兄弟とのライバルの歴史，現在進行中の離婚と子供達への心配が語られほろっとさせられる，

In this book the author makes a really good attempt to explain how lifes events determine who we become. He uses really good examples and makes the book easy to read however he never specifically states his position on what he believes influences our outcome in life. There are a lot of "guesses" and statements about how we can never be sure that had 1 small event not happened that things wouldn't be different.I personally feel like I knew that prior to reading the book, that any one thing can change your entire lifes path. I was looking for the author to make a theory and prove it, or lead in one direction. I respect that he did not pretend to have the answer but I think this book missed the mark on what I was looking for. I will say however that the examples of how different siblings are and how they were raised and the changes within the families during certain stages of life did help me to form my own theory on how society and family influence who we ultimately become.

So true and the reasons why some make it and some don't. Birth Order has a huge impact and circumstances that people have no control over.

The premise of this book really draws you in, especially if you've read anything on the subject of family dynamics and development. There are some very interesting observations on, and in some cases contradictions of, popular ideas. I definitely found myself considering my own childhood, and I can certainly see how this book would stir the mind of parents. Unfortunately, I was left wanting. There are very few actual conclusions made by the author despite the numerous anecdotes used to (supposedly) present his arguments.