People Who Are Born In September Are Usually Smarter, Study Finds

A study has found that babies born in September are actually much smarter than everyone else. As you've probably already guessed, it's all to do with the school year, which normally starts in September and finishes up in August.

Researchers came to this conclusion after looking at the cognitive development of over 1.2 million public school students in Florida, aged between six and 15. The study used children all born in different months to reach the findings.

Children born in September (the oldest ones) were found to have a higher yearly score than those born in August (the youngest ones).

Scientists also found that the increased scores built up over time, and those born in September had a higher likelihood of getting into a good university.

The study also looked at other socio-economic factors that could contribute to how well a child does in school, such as their parent's education, as well as ethnicity and affluence.

These were not the only interesting findings from the study, which was titled 'School Starting Age and Cognitive Development', either.

Apparently, if you are born in September, not only are you cleverer, but you are also much less likely to spend time behind bars.

By looking at and analysing data from youth detention centres in Florida, researchers discovered that those who were the oldest in the year group had a lower likelihood of being incarcerated for juvenile crimes. Smarter and less likely to be locked up in prison, you say? Sounds alright to us!

And if you were born in September and also happen to be left-handed, it apparently only gets better.

IFL Science recently looked at handedness' connection to areas like mathematical ability, testing whether the age-old myth of left-handed people being smarter actually had any grounding in reality.

The online science news outlet stated that because hand preference is a manifestation of brain function, it is therefore directly linked to cognition.

IFL Science said: "Left-handers exhibit, on average, a more developed right brain hemisphere, which is specialised for processes such as spatial reasoning and the ability to rotate mental representations of objects."

And that's not all. In lefties, the bundle of nerve cells that connects the two hemispheres of the brain - otherwise known as the corpus callosum - tends to be larger than in their right-handed counterparts. This increased connectivity gives some left-handers a superior ability to process information.