Adolescents display distinctive tolerance to ambiguity and to uncertainty during risky decision making.

ABSTRACT: Although actuarial data indicate that risk-taking behavior peaks in adolescence, laboratory evidence for this developmental spike remains scarce. One possible explanation for this incongruity is that in the real world adolescents often have only vague information about the potential consequences of their behavior and the likelihoods of those consequences, whereas in the lab these are often clearly stated. How do adolescents behave under such more realistic conditions of ambiguity and uncertainty? We asked 105 participants aged from 8 to 22 years to make three types of choices: (1) choices between options whose possible outcomes and probabilities were fully described (choices under risk); (2) choices between options whose possible outcomes were described but whose probability information wa

SUBMITTER: van den Bos W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5241878 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature