Does your older brother think he’s cleverer than you? Well, he’s probably right. According to a new research published in the journal Intelligence, the oldest children in families are likely to have the highest IQs and the youngest the lowest.

A number of studies have suggested that IQ scores decline with birth order. In the most recent study, at Vrije University, Amsterdam, researchers looked at men and women whose IQ had been tested at the ages of 5，12 ，and 18．

The results, which show a trend for the oldest to score better than the youngest in each test, involved about 200,000 people. That showed that first-borns had a three-point IQ advantage over the second-born, who was a point ahead of the next in line．

The order of birth can also affect personality, achievement, and career, with first-borns being more academically successful and more likely to win Nobel prizes. However, eldest children are less likely to be radical（不同凡响的） and pioneering. Charles Darwin, for example, was the fifth child of six．

Exactly why there should be such differences is not clear, and there are a number of theories on environmental influences on the child．

The so-called dilution(稀释法) theory suggests that as family resources, both emotional and physical, as well as economic, are limited, it follows that, as a result , as more children come along, the levels of parental attention and encouragement will drop. Another theory is that the intellectual environment in the family favors the first-born who has, at least for some time, the benefit of individual care and help．

The theory which enjoys the most support is that the extra time and patience that the earlier-borned get from their parents, compared with those arriving later, gives them an advantage．

When people pause before replying to a question, even for just a few seconds, their an-swers are supposed to be less sincere and believable than if they had replied immediately. And the longer the hesitation lasts, the less sincere the response appears.

Researchers conducted a series of experiments involving more than 7, 500 individuals. Participants either listened to an audio record, viewed a video or read an account of a person responding to a simple question. In each case, the response time varied from immediate to a 10-second delay. Participants then rated the sincerity of the response on a sliding scale. Across all 14 experiments, participants consistently rated delayed responses as less sincere re-gardless of the question.

The findings have wide connotations. Whenever people are interacting, they are judging each other's sincerity. These results can be applied to a wide range of interactions, going from workplace chats to couples and friends arguing. Further, in job interviews and in court hear-ings and trials, people are often tasked with judgments of sincerity. Here, too, response speed could play a part. In general, whenever there is a response that requires an answer, such as in a job interview, delayed responses can be thought as less sincere.

It would be unfair for the responder, such as a crime suspect, if the response delay was sorted by mistake into thought control or answer making up when it was in fact caused by a different factor, such as simply being distracted or thoughtful. The experiment also found that definitely instructing participants to ignore delayed response reduced, but did not com-pletely remove, the effect of delayed response on judgment of sincerity or guilt. Nevertheless, on the whole, a fast response seems to be regarded as more sincere, while a response that is delayed for even a couple of seconds may be considered a slow lie.

Some say you can tell a lot about a person by the way they decorate their homes. We often find pleasure in the things we stick in our houses, or paintings to liven up walls. And when we head to others’ houses, we often see things we appreciate but wouldn’t have in our own homes.【小题1】The point is, the way we decorate our homes is very personal. And while many of us have plenty of stuff, there are always people who go a bit further.【小题2】

Minimalism was an art movement that started in the 1950s.【小题3】Some people liked that art style and used it as a way of living. Ideas of vast open spaces with an organized and functional structure may spring to mind. They are usually decorated in simple light colors, or just black and white. For some, especially maximalists, it may seem boring or depressing.

【小题4】It embraces the ideals of “more is more”. While minimalism centers around the principle of clearing up the unnecessary stuff, it’s easy to imagine that a maximalist home is overflowing with items — but that’s not the basic idea. It’s more about filling the space — making the most of the area. Complicated structures and bold colors combined with mixed patterns is what you will see in a home like this. For a minimalist who is used to “simple” designs, it could be overwhelming.【小题5】

The way you decorate your home is up to you! But, if you opt for maximalism, you may need to prepare for a bit more dusting.