Book dossier

Born to rebel

by Frank J. Sulloway

Why are individuals from the same family often no more similar in personality than those from different families? Why, within the same family, do some children conform to authority whereas others rebel? The family, it turns out, is not a "shared environment" but rather a set of niches that provide siblings with different outlooks. At the heart of this pioneering inquiry into human development is a fundamental insight: that the personalities of siblings vary because they adopt different strategies in the universal quest for parental favor. Frank J. Sulloway's most important finding is that eldest children identify with parents and authority, and support the status quo, whereas younger children rebel against it. Drawing on the work of Darwin and the new sciences of evolutionary psychology, he transforms our understanding of personality development and its origins in family dynamics. Most persuasively, Sulloway's findings offer conclusive evidence that the family, with its powerful interpersonal dynamics, is a cauldron for the great revolutionary advances that drive historical change. Through his analysis of revolutions in social and scientific thought, from the Reformation to Darwin's theory of natural selection, Sulloway demonstrates that the primary engine of history is located within families, not between them, as Marx believed. This landmark work illuminates the crucial influence that family niches have on personality, and documents the profound consequences of sibling competition - not only on individual development within the family, but on society as a whole. Born to Rebel's pathbreaking insights promise to revolutionize the nature of psychological, sociological, and historical inquiry.