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Risk Taking for Potential Reward Decreases across the Lifespan

The extent to which aging affects decision-making is controversial. Given the critical financial decisions that older adults face (e.g., managing retirement funds), changes in risk preferences are of particular importance [1]. Although some studies have found that older individuals are more risk ave...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Rutledge, Robb B., Smittenaar, Peter, Zeidman, Peter, Brown, Harriet R., Adams, Rick A., Lindenberger, Ulman, Dayan, Peter, Dolan, Raymond J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cell Press 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4920952/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27265392
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.05.017
Descripción
Sumario:The extent to which aging affects decision-making is controversial. Given the critical financial decisions that older adults face (e.g., managing retirement funds), changes in risk preferences are of particular importance [1]. Although some studies have found that older individuals are more risk averse than younger ones [2, 3, 4], there are also conflicting results, and a recent meta-analysis found no evidence for a consistent change in risk taking across the lifespan [5]. There has as yet been little examination of one potential substrate for age-related changes in decision-making, namely age-related decline in dopamine, a neuromodulator associated with risk-taking behavior. Here, we characterized choice preferences in a smartphone-based experiment (n = 25,189) in which participants chose between safe and risky options. The number of risky options chosen in trials with potential gains but not potential losses decreased gradually over the lifespan, a finding with potentially important economic consequences for an aging population. Using a novel approach-avoidance computational model, we found that a Pavlovian attraction to potential reward declined with age. This Pavlovian bias has been linked to dopamine, suggesting that age-related decline in this neuromodulator could lead to the observed decrease in risk taking.