Birth Order and Political Success: A Study of the 1970 Illinois General Elections

Abstract

A questionnaire was used to obtain the birth order of all candidates for contested seats in the Illinois State Senate and General Assembly. It was hypothesized that firstborn and lastborn Ss would be more likely to enter political life and more likely to win their contests. Results indicated that no birth rank was overrepresented among these candidates but proportionally more firstborn and lastborn candidates won their contests than did middle-born candidates. Winners were more likely to return their questionnaires than were losers, and the data suggested that it might be possible crudely to predict election outcome on the basis of the proportion of questionnaires returned prior to the election.