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Study
shows Age doesn’t necessarily affect
decisions
June 2010--Many people believe that getting older means
losing a mental edge, leading to poor
decision-making. But a new study from North
Carolina State University shows that when it
comes to making intuitive decisions – using
your “gut instincts” – older adults fare as
well as their juniors.
The researchers tested groups of young
adults (aged 17-28) and community-dwelling
older adults (aged 60-86) – meaning they
live in the community, rather than in a
nursing home – to see how they fared when
making decisions based on intuitive
evaluation.
For example, study participants were asked
to choose from a list of apartments based on
each apartment’s overall positive
attributes. Under such conditions, young and
older adults were equally adept at making
decisions.
Many people believe that getting older leads
to poor decision-making. Research shows that
it is not that simple. Education and the
complexity of the decision play important
roles.
“But not every decision can be made that
way,” says Dr. Thomas Hess, a professor of
psychology at NC State and co-author of the
study. “Some decisions require more active
deliberation. For example, those decisions
that require people to distinguish pieces of
information that are important from those
that are unimportant to the decision at
hand.” And when it comes to more complex
decision-making, Hess says, older adults
face more challenges than their younger
counterparts.
In one portion of the study, participants
were given a list of specific criteria to
use in selecting an apartment. That list was
then taken away, and each participant had to
rely on his or her memory to incorporate the
criteria into their decision-making.
However, there was considerable variation
among the older adults who participated in
the study – some did very well at the
complex decision-making. “Older adults with
a higher education did a better job of
remembering specific criteria and utilizing
them when they made decisions,” says lead
author Tara Queen, a psychology Ph.D.
student at NC State. “Ultimately, they made
better choices.”
“This tells us that the effects of age on
decision-making are not universal,” Hess
says. “When it comes to making intuitive
decisions, like choosing a dish to order
from a menu, young and old are similar. Age
differences are more likely to crop up when
it comes to complex decision-making, such as
choosing a health-care plan based on a
complex array of information. But even then,
it appears that any negative effects of
aging will be more evident in those with
lower levels of education.”
The research can be used to change the way
we present information to older adults, Hess
adds. Queen explains that “presenting older
adults with overwhelming amounts of
information is less beneficial to them. For
example, different people have different
priorities. Information can be broken down
into categories. People could then decide
which categories are most important to them,
and dig down for additional information as
needed.”
Queen and Hess are currently doing
additional research to determine exactly how
the complexity of information being
presented to older adults affects their
decision-making – knowledge that could allow
for more specific measures that could be
used to help older adults continue to make
good decisions.
The study, “Age Differences in the Effects
of Conscious and Unconscious Thought in
Decision Making,” was funded in part by the
National Institute on Aging and the
Retirement Research Foundation. The study is
published in the June issue of
Psychology and Aging.
NC State’s Department of Psychology is part
of the university’s College of Humanities
and Social Sciences.
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