Intuitively, most people would assume that the older people get, at least to a certain extent, the better able they would be to make decisions. This because of the idea of wisdom gained over years of living. Recent research by several groups has shown this many not be the case however. Now, researchers in Texas show that different age groups might be better at different types of decision making than others. They've published their results on Psychological Science.
Which Age Group is Better at Making Which Types of Decisions?
According to Darrell Worthy, who along with Marissa Gorlick, Jennifer Pacheco, David Schnyer, and Todd Maddox, (all from the University of Texas at Austin) conducted the study, younger adults do appear to better at making snap decisions; ones that don't require a lot of background, or as some might call it, wisdom. But when there are issues at stake that require some degree of analysis or background, they say that older adults beat them hands down.
In the study, the researchers gathered a group of volunteers which they divided into two groups; those that were older (60 to 80) and those that were younger (college-age) and ran them through two experiments.
In the first experiment, both groups were given the same test where they received points based on which option (out of four) they chose, with clues to help them decide. The idea, as explained to them, was to try to get as many points as possible. The younger group outscored the older folks virtually every time.
The second experiment was set up as virtual scenario where the volunteers were asked to figure out how to maximize oxygen for astronauts on a Mars mission. Answering some questions correctly provided more oxygen (growing plants for example) while others incorrectly took away oxygen (working harder, for example, meant consuming oxygen faster). In this experiment the older crowd did far better than the youngsters.
Worthy summed up the experiment results by noting that the younger adults did better when the rewards would occur right away, meaning they didn't have to consider long term implications. The older group in contrast, did a far better job of correlating past experiences with current circumstances to come up answers that made the most sense for the given situation.
Why Do Different Age Groups Make Decisions Differently
The group consensus by the team was that the differences in approach by the volunteers in the study comes about as changes occur in the brain. They say that the part of the brain responsible for reasoning is sort of pre-wired to make decisions based on readily available data (such as in how to deal with an threat) in a speedy manner. As people age however, this part of the brain weakens forcing people to rely on other parts of their brain, such as memory and repercussions of other events, to help them make necessary decisions.
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