How your birth order predicts the rest of your life

Dragan Radovanovic/Business Insider

If you really want to rile up guests at a party, start talking - preferably loudly and over-confidently - about the science of birth order.

It's one of those topics in science that everyone's got an opinion on. And as it turns out, even psychologists can't seem to agree on how your birth order affects your success in life.

We dug into the science behind birth order and rounded up some of the most fascinating findings.

As always with psychological research, take these ideas with a grain of salt - for example, just because elder children are more likely to be leaders doesn't mean you can't be a CEO if you've got an older sibling.

That said, it's always interesting to speculate how our family dynamics helped shape the person we are today - and what's more fun than blaming all your problems on your family?