The Relation between Decision Making and Valence Asymmetries: A Comparison of Older and Younger Adults

在人的一生中，人们面临着与财务、社会和健康相关的重大决定，这些决定需要权衡与每个决定选择相关的利弊。然而，尽管婴儿潮一代在美国人口中的比例越来越高，但人们对年龄及以上人群的决策知之甚少。最近的研究表明，不同年龄的人做决定是不同的，但原因还不清楚。为了更好地理解决策中的年龄差异，这项建议采取了一种新的方法，关注人们如何看待积极和消极的信息。具体来说，老年人可能更关注正面信息而不是负面信息，而年轻人可能更关注负面信息而不是正面信息。当决策有利有弊时，人们在权衡正面和负面信息方面的差异可能至少在一定程度上决定他们做出的决定，并解释高风险决策中与年龄相关的差异。通过了解老年人和年轻人是否以不同的方式权衡消极和积极的信息，并确定这些不同的敏感性影响决策，可以开发更有效的方式来交流积极和消极的信息，以鼓励在一生中做出良好的决策。这项拟议的研究的具体目的是调查老年人和年轻人对积极和消极信息的看法的差异，然后将这些差异与高风险的决定联系起来。在两项研究中，老年人和年轻人将完成一项计算机任务，评估对积极信息和消极信息的基本思考方式。参与者还将回答问题并完成衡量他们决策的任务。将对老年人和年轻人进行比较，以确定他们在学习或对正面信息和负面信息的权重方面是否存在差异，并将测试这些差异在多大程度上解释了与年龄相关的决策差异。研究结果将显示，在涉及利弊的决策中，年龄相关的差异可能是由于老年人和年轻人看待积极和消极信息的基本差异造成的。了解这一点将提供可用于帮助所有年龄段的人做出正确决定的信息。

Across the life span, people face significant financial, social, and health-related decisions that entail weighing the pros and cons associated with each decision choice. However, little is known about decision making in people 64 years and older, even though aging Baby Boomers are a growing segment of the US population. Recent research indicates that decision making differs by age, but the reasons why are not well understood. To better understand age differences in decision making, this proposal takes a new approach by focusing on how people think about positive and negative information. Specifically, older adults may focus more on positive information than negative information, whereas younger adults may focus more on negative information than positive information. When decisions have both pros and cons, differences between people in how they weigh positive and negative information could determine, at least in part, the decisions they make and explain age-related differences in risky decision-making. By understanding if older and younger people weigh negative and positive information differently and establishing that these differential sensitivities affect decision making, more effective ways of communicating positive and negative information can be developed to encourage good decision making across the life span. The specific aims of the proposed research are to investigate differences in how older and younger people think about positive versus negative information, and then link these differences to risky decisions. Across two studies, older and younger adults will complete a computer task that assesses basic ways of thinking about positive versus negative information. Participants will also answer questions and complete tasks that measure their decision making. Older and younger adults will be compared to determine if they differ in learning or weighting of positive versus negative information, and the extent to which these differences explain age-related differences in decision making will be tested. The results will show how age-related differences in decisions that involve pros and cons may be due to basic differences in how older and younger people view positive and negative information. Understanding this will provide information that can be used to help people of all ages make good decisions.