Teens Often Ignore Online Risks

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on PyschCentral.

New research finds that adolescents are more likely than adults to take online risks, regardless of the gamble involved.

Investigators from the University of Plymouth explored the psychological mechanisms underpinning why teenagers are more likely to take risks online when compared to young adults.

Dr. Claire White from the School of Psychology and her team gave adolescents (aged 13-17) and young adults (aged 18-24) the same online quiz gambling scenario. For both groups, the exam was framed in two different ways — one highlighting what could be won, and one highlighting what could be lost.

After dealing with both scenarios, the overall results showed adolescents demonstrated the riskier behavior.

These results were partially linked to sensation seeking, but more fully explained by Fuzzy Trace Theory — the notion that people process information in both a verbatim (quantitative) and gist (qualitative) fashion.

However, the older a person gets, and the more memories and experiences they have, the more inclined they are to consider risk intuitively, drawing on simple gist representations.

Researchers also discovered that, independent of sensation-seeking, adolescents were not swayed by how the question was framed. Conversely, young adults were — choosing not to make the gamble when the potential losses were highlighted.

Calculating the risks involved, compared to making intuitive decisions, led to higher rates of risk-taking by adolescents.

Investigators said results highlighted the importance of conveying information online in a clear and objective way to teenagers. The research also suggests that risk-averse beliefs and values should be communicated in a manner that are easy to remember and retrieve, and effectively tailored to different age groups.

Source: PsychCentral
http://psychcentral.com/news/2016/10/26/teens-often-ignore-online-risks/111637.html