Adolescents, Decision-Making and Rationality

Adolescents have never been known for their great decision-making skills, but a new study has shown them to be no more optimistic about the risks associated with actions such as smoking than are adults. Rather, they are more likely to overestimate their risks for things like car accidents and sexually transmitted diseases.

Poor decision-making, a new study shows, may only come into play because teens are too rational, estimating the risk vs. reward ratio of things like drunk driving fairly accurately--and possibly deciding the risk is worth it, whereas adults intuitively realize that the hazards associated with some activities are simply too grave to even bother calculating the odds. Researchers suggest that rather than furnishing teens with statistics about various hazards, encouraging more adult "gist"-based decision skills may thus prove a better approach to intervention programs.

Read more: Adolescents, risks and the pitfalls of rationality
FULL TEXT: Risk and Rationality in Adolescent Decision Making (PDF)